Coloring as a Means to Lightning Data Exploration

The NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC) is the primary NASA archive for satellite lightning data. Since the GHRC DAAC is an active archive, one of our responsibilities is to bring scientific data to a broader audience in a manner that informs and educates. There are many existing resources for introductory lightning and safety information available on the internet. The GHRC DAAC role is to go beyond these cautionary and informative web sites and instead demonstrate what the scientific data show, what conclusions one can draw from the data and how they can be applied to address real-world problems. The GHRC DAAC recently developed a hands-on color-by-number activity that makes lightning data approachable, bright, colorful, and inviting, which can then be used to communicate and educate people of many ages, from elementary-aged audiences up to adults. The color-by-number activity contains satellite lightning data consisting of the number of lightning flashes occurring within any one four by four kilometer pixel over much of the globe from January 1998 through October 2014 as measured by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Participants in the color-by-number activity can visually see, during the coloring process, the global patterns of lightning occurrence which can lead to a discussion of regional patterns of lightning risk.