The evolution and extratropical transition of tropical cyclones from a GPM, ISS LIS and GLM perspective

The distribution of lightning with respect to tropical convective precipitation systems has been well established in previous studies, which include the successful Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). However, TRMM did not provide information about precipitation features pole-ward of ±38° latitude. Hence not much is known about the evolution of lightning within extra-tropical cyclones traversing the mid-latitudes, especially its oceans. To facilitate such studies we combine a recently constructed precipitation features (PF) database obtained from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission constellation of satellites with lightning observations from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on-board GOES-16 and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on-board the International Space Station (ISS). We use this satellite-based lightning-enriched PF dataset to investigate the lightning and precipitation characteristics of cyclones as they evolved and underwent extra-tropical transitions in the mid-latitudes during the active 2017 hurricane season. This presentation highlights the convective evolution of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which reached Category 5 strength and ravaged parts of the eastern Caribbean. The goal of this study is to provide a new observationally-based view of the tropical to extra-tropical transition and its impact on lightning production. Such data fusion approaches, as presented here, will also be important in future satellite studies of convective precipitation.