Incorporating GLM Lightning Observations at the National Hurricane Center

Convective-scale processes, such as deep convection, are known to have implications on tropical cyclone (TC) structure and intensity. Observations of deep convection in TCs are limited depending on the source of the data. Geostationary visible and infrared satellite imagery provides continuous coverage, but the TC cirrus canopy usually obscures convection below the cloud top. Both microwave imagery and aircraft radar reconnaissance provides more details about the nature of the convection below the cloud tops; however, the availability of these data sources is limited temporally. Lightning observations have the potential to lessen the gap and provide crucial information on deep convection in TCs.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – Series 16 (GOES-16) Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) collected data throughout the 2017 and 2018 Atlantic and East Pacific hurricane seasons. Prior to GLM, oceanic lightning detection was limited to ground-based networks. This talk will discuss some preliminary findings on how the ground-based networks compare to GLM, specifically in TCs, as well as plans to incorporate lightning into data bundles in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS-II) software and statistical intensity guidance at the National Hurricane Center. This discussion will include the treatment of the data during the extremely active 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season when the GLM was still undergoing testing and was considered non-operational.