Sensors are being developed to provide a satellite-based VHF global lightning monitor (e.g. Suszcynsky, et al., "VHF Global Lightning and Severe Storm Monitoring from Space: Storm-level Characterization of VHF Lightning Emissions," EOS Trans. AGU 2001 Fall Mt. Prog. And Abstr. 82, No. 47, F143, 2001). Dispersive effects of propagation of the lightning electromagnetic wave through the ionospheric and plasmaspheric plasmas cause the higher frequency components to arrive at the satellite before lower frequency components. From the time-of-arrival at several frequencies we can derive the Total Electron Content (TEC) between the satellite and the lightning. Using multi-satellite techniques we can geolocate the lightning and the ionospheric penetration point quite accurately. A single ground station could provide essentially real-time regional TEC coverage. Four ground stations could provide global, real-time TEC measurements to supplement existing ground-based systems, especially over broad ocean areas.

We expect several lightning detections per satellite per minute. Temporal resolution will be limited only by ground segment processing. Spatial coverage and resolution will be limited by lightning occurrence, but many commercial sector TEC requirements are also correlated to lightning occurrence. With our FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) satellite we sense lightning over most of the globe including the oceans. We expect to determine TEC spatial gradients with tens of km resolution. This capability should be especially useful in severe convective weather to aircraft using GPS-based navigation, e.g. the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).