Lightning mapping technology has advanced considerably over the last 40 years. Now highly detailed, three-dimensional maps of lightning in storms can be produced in real time, and systems capable of mapping the plan location of lightning over the entire Earth have been demonstrated. As new capabilities have been developed, they have permitted considerable progress to be made in understanding of lightning physics and storm electrification. A mature example is the discovery that cloud-go-ground lightning activity is often dominated by naturally occurring positive ground flashes in some climatological regions. As we have learned more from these mapping systems, various arenas of weather operations have found the systems increasingly useful. Relatively new applications include examining how to assimilate lightning mapping data into numerical forecast models, a capability that is particularly important in regions that now have sparse storm data, such as over oceans. Lightning mapping systems have considerable potential to teach us about the microphysics and kinematics of storms, to teach us still more about lightning physics, and to help reveal climatological effects on storm severity or frequency. They also will lead to still other applications in research and operations. In this presentation, we will concentrate primarily on advances in research and operations over the last 5-10 years and will consider trends that hold considerable promise for the next 5-10 years.