Lightning research from space

In connection with research conducted with the aid of an ultraviolet spectrometer aboard NASA's Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 satellite it was discovered that lightning could be seen from orbit. After OSO 5 was launched on January 22, 1969, the data from its six photometers were searched for lightning events. Approximately 1,000 storm systems and over 7,000 strokes of lightning could be detected. Two years after OSO 2, the first dedicated lightning experiment was flown on the UK Ariel 3 satellite. The high-altitude Radio Astronomical Explorer 1 satellite (Explorer 38) also recorded radio emission as part of its observations of radio sources from the earth, and Lightning phenomena, including 'superbolt' sightings, were observed by the Vela satellites. In 1974, a piggyback lightning experiment was carried on a polar orbiting military weather satellite. Attention is also given to lightning discovered by Soviet and U.S. probes on Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.