Global Optical Lightning Intensity near the Equator from the C/NOFS Satellite
Abstract
In 2008 the Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) aboard the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite was launched into a near-equatorial orbit, and contains an optical Lightning Detector (LD) to identify lightning bursts. VEFI/LD continuously observes lightning during nighttime passes of the satellite along its low inclination (13 degree) orbit and within the altitude domain defined by the satellite’s perigee and apogee of 401 km and 867 km, respectively. The lightning detector gathers data within 15 degrees latitude of the subtrack and records optical intensity in 7 intensity levels from a pair of north-looking and south-looking detectors. Here, we present the time dependent global distribution of optical lightning intensity gathered thus far during the C/NOFS mission and compare it to simultaneous observations of lightning gathered by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) ground-based system.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFMAE21B0277R
- Keywords:
-
- 3324 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Lightning