Navigation of Geostationary Lightning Mapper Data

Operational data from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) has proven to be useful in a wide variety of applications, including severe weather, oceanic electrical activity, continuing current, and bolide detection. However, researchers have noted there is a non-trivial amount of valid lightning data that is filtered out of the operational data. One roadblock to exploiting this information is the lack of navigation available before the operational data set is made available.

Instrument data from the GLM goes through several processing steps before an operational data set is produced. The instrument Level 0 data is filtered for noise, resulting in Level 1. This is then navigated, referred to as Level 1b. Level 2 data is further combined into groups and flashed.

Currently, navigation from the operation data set is done via identifying coastlines in the background images, and aligning the pixel array accordingly. This work introduces an alternative method to do navigation that can be applied to Level 0 data, without the need for background images. The methodology will be discussed, and initial results comparing the resulting locations will be investigated. Possible applications will be further explored.