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Status and Use of the DC Lightning Mapping Array

Status and Use of the DC Lightning Mapping Array. Eric C. Bruning University of Maryland and NOAA/NESDIS Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies Steven J. Goodman NOAA/NASA GOES-R Program Office, GSFC, Greenbelt, MD Richard Blakeslee NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

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Status and Use of the DC Lightning Mapping Array

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  1. Status and Use of the DC Lightning Mapping Array Eric C. Bruning University of Maryland and NOAA/NESDIS Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies Steven J. Goodman NOAA/NASA GOES-R Program Office, GSFC, Greenbelt, MD Richard Blakeslee NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Jeff Bailey & John Hall University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville , AL Steven Zubrick NOAA/NWS Sterling, VA Paul Krehbiel New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM 28 July 2009 Southern Thunder, Cocoa Beach, FL

  2. DCLMA: History and People • Deployed 2006 by NMT and NSSTC (NASA MSFC, UAH) and upgraded 2009 (two stations). Currently John Hall (data and products) and Jeff Bailey (hardware maintenance) work closely with New Mexico Tech to ensure continued operation. • Partners at universities and community colleges provide space and network connectivity for equipment. They receive access to data and educational opportunities for students. Real-time status display. Data latency of a few seconds. LMA antenna and electronics box Courtesy NMT

  3. Experimental public imageryhttp://branch.nsstc.nasa.gov/PUBLIC/DCLMA/ Courtesy NMT

  4. DCLMA: Current configuration Two new sites in May 2009 10 total stations UMD Ag Station, Upper Marlboro, MD NVCC - Woodbridge, VA Improved margin to support robust performance

  5. DCLMA: Current configuration Two new sites in May 2009 UMD Baltimore County Johns Hopkins Adv. Physics Lab Montgomery College Sterling, VA NOAA Test / Eval Facility Howard University UMD Ag Station, Upper Marlboro NVCC Annandale George Mason Univ. NVCC Woodbridge College of Southern Maryland map

  6. Impact of extra stations 3 June 2009 • Compare previous network performance with two stations missing (6 stations) to current performance with one station missing (9 stations) • Using reprocessed (non-decimated, science-quality) data • Loose quality filtering (Χ2 < 5, stations >= 6) • Moderate range (80 km) • Storm with severe thunderstorm warning

  7. More flashes resolved • 2 minutes of data • 110 vs. 2247 sources • All detections with old configuration were with minimum number of stations • 5 seconds of data: • 2 vs. 100 sources • Old does not detect a –CG that killed 12 yr old boy on a baseball field south of Fredericksburg, VA

  8. Long-range detection • 17 July 2009 • Severe storm east of Roanoke • Three tornadoes Full-day summary image from public webpage

  9. 17 July 2009 2 min counts Lightning rates increase as storm enters more unstable air. More sudden changes superimposed on long term trend convolved with detection efficiency. EF0 was a subtle, fast spinup (Keighton, pers. comm.) 900 1430 SVR 1521 TOR Warnings issued by NWS Damage survey results (tornadoes only, also many wind reports beginning 1400 UTC) 1525 EF0 Total sources VHF Source Count 1502 EF1 1448 EF1 Maximum sources per pixel 0 1415 UTC 1600UTC

  10. 1 10 100 17 July 2009 2 min, 8 km GLM-like source density Cell development characterized by jumps in max density followed by increase in cell footprint and expansion of area covered by max. Needs flash sorting to even out detection efficiency effects North distance EF1 EF1 EF0 200 km East distance 200 km Sources per pixel

  11. Electrification in winter / early spring convection 29 March 2009, 4:30pm EDT • T=73, Td=51°F ahead of front (T = low 50s °F behind). • 18Z sounding shows 0°C at 3 km, -10°C at 4.5 km -15°C at 5 km. Cloud top at ~10 km. • Upper IC flashes indicate negative charging to graupel • Low level flashes may be upward initiating positive leaders (many cluster at same spot), but seeing more detections than usual for positive channels. Need to look at ground strike data • Opportunity to understand likely flash patterns and underlying science in colder climatic regime storm charge + – +?

  12. Severe storm N-AWIPS display at SPC Ama Ba / NWS MDL: Cell-based lightning trends in AWIPS at LWX Operational data delivery supports GOES-R Proving Ground • NWS Forecast Office in Sterling Virginia • Steve Zubrick • LMA also covers parts of four surrounding WFOs. • Blacksburg and Wakefield now pulling DCLMA data from ERH • Storm Prediction Center and NSSL Experimental Warning Program, Norman, OK • Chris Siewert, Russ Schneider, Bob Rabin, and Kristin Kuhlman • Planned displays of flash-level GLM proxy data; migration to AWIPS-II displays

  13. Operational use and trials 26 June 2009 Severe storm; tree falls on car in DC • See talks this afternoon • Steve Zubrick, 1:15 pm, Operational Use of the DC Lightning Mapping Array at the NWS Weather Forecast Office, Sterling, VA • Kristin Kuhlman et al., 3:15 pm, Results from the 2009 Experimental Warning Program: Forecaster Use and Evaluation of Total Lightning Data • Chris Siewert et al., 3:30 pm, Activities within the NESDIS supported SPC GOES-R Proving Ground in preparation for use of Geostationary Lightning Mapper data in forecast operations 11 July 2009 Non-severe storms

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