The Effect of Energetic Information in Optical Scattering Simulations of Lightning Flashes

The detection of lightning from space using optical emission has provided important insights into thunderstorm development, lightning physics, climate variability, and others. These insights come with a desire to better understand the measured optical emission and how it relates to other meteorological phenomena. One such way that this has been done is via the modeling of the optical scattering by the cloud that occurs.

Recent simulations have evolved to include non-heterogeneous microphysical environments. Further, Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) data is often used to map and identify the branches of lightning to constrain the source of light. This work incorporates energetic information derived from the Huntsville Alabama Marx Meter Array (HAMMA). For example, current and charge density can be used to model the relative brightness of different components of a lightning flash, and ultimately, how this information relates to the measured optical emission from space. Further, we use HAMMA data to produce maps of lightning flashes and show how the differences between the HAMMA and LMA maps affect the modeling of the optical emission.