A simultaneous observation of lightning by ASIM, Colombia-Lightning Mapping Array, GLM, and ISS-LIS

Abstract

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station (ISS) provides optical radiances and images of lightning flashes in several spectral bands. This work presents a lightning flash simultaneously observed from space by ASIM, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) and the Lightning Imaging Sensor on the International Space Station (ISS-LIS); and from ground by the Colombia-Lightning Mapping Array (Colombia-LMA). Volumetric weather radar provides reflectivity data to help to interpret the effects of the cloud particles on the observed optical features. We found that surges in radiance in the band at 777.4 nm appear to be related mostly with lightning processes involving currents as well with branching of lightning leaders with new leader development. In cloud areas with reflectivity <18 dBZ above the lightning leader channels at altitudes >7 km, these have been imaged by ASIM and GLM. But in the region with reflectivity <23 dBZ above the lightning leader channels, despite its lower cloud tops and similar altitudes of lightning channels, these have been almost undetectable. The calculated relative optical depths are consistent with the observed optical intensity at the cloud top. Despite the effects of the cloud particles and the altitude of the lightning channels on the attenuation of the luminosity, the luminosity of the lightning channels due to different processes is fundamental for the imaging of lightning from space.

This work was supported by research grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER): ESP2013-48032-C5-3-R, ESP2015-69909-C5-5-R, ESP2017-86263-C4-2-R, and PID2019-109269RB-C42. ASIM is a mission of ESA's SciSpace Program for scientific utilization of the ISS and non-ISS space exploration platforms and space envi-ronment analogs. It is funded by ESA and national contributions through contracts with TERMA and Techni-cal University of Denmark (DTU) in Denmark, University of Bergen (UB) in Norway, and University of Valencia (UV) in Spain. The ASIM Science Data Center (ASDC) at DTU is supported by PRODEX contract PEA 40001 1 5884. The authors are grateful to Keraunos for providing LINET lightning data and the World-Wide Lightning Location Net-work (http://wwlln.net/) for providing WWLLN lightning location data. Also, we would like to thank the Colombian Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM) for pro-viding the weather radar information used in this study.

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (author's final draft)