Analysis and Visualization of Tropical Thunderstorms Using WWLLN Lightning and Satellite Microwave Radiometrics

Satellite and ground-based remote observations are needed to understand mesoscale organization, structure and dynamics, and life cycle of convective systems in the tropics, especially over the ocean. In this presentation, we use lightning measurements from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) to quantify lightning stroke rates and stroke probabilities in areas of deep convection. Specifically those areas identified using microwave radiometer techniques, including the 37 and 85 GHz channels on TRMM/TMI and the 37 to 183 GHz channels on DMSP/SSMIS and GPM/GMI. One of the main outcomes of this work is a semi real-time visualization of lightning and satellite data for tropical cyclones. This product will be freely available on the world-wide-web. Furthermore, we attempt to reconstruct microwave radiometer brightness temperatures using lightning data for thunderstorms. Our work has implications for future missions, including geostationary lightning imagers such as the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on the GOES-R/GOES-S satellites.