Watch lightning strikes from space on NOAA's cutting-edge new satellite
- by Carmen Reese
- in Science
- — Mar 7, 2017
The mapper continually looks for lightning flashes in the Western Hemisphere, so forecasters know when a storm is forming, intensifying and becoming more risky.
It takes photos not only of the lightning bolts that hit the Earth but also the bolts that go between or within clouds, which are actually more common and a precursor of cloud-to-ground strikes.
A still image from the above video clip shows two of the lightning flashes and the cloud canopy associated with the strong storms near Houston.
The newly released GLM image shows a view from February 14, when a number of storms popped up in the west. Areas with higher lightning energy are indicated with brighter colours.
This sample animated imagery from the GLM provided by NOAA was taken on February 14, 2017, near the Texas Gulf Coast where severe storms pushed through and spawned tornadoes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today released video shot by the GOES-16 satellite of a severe storm above Texas on February 14. These satellites will provide continuous imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth's western hemisphere, lightning data and space weather. The lightning mapper is just one of a suite of high-tech tools created to help forecasters track storms and issue timely severe weather warnings.
This satellite can scan the globe five times faster than current satellites, and it includes the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), the first lightning detector in geostationary orbit. This means that in just its first few weeks online, the instrument has already collected more lightning data than all previous lightning data gathered from space combined, according to a statement from Lockheed Martin, the company that built the GLM.
NOAA's GOES-16 satellite, which orbits 22,300 miles above the Earth, was launched in November 2016.
NOAA's satellites are the backbone of its life-saving weather forecasts.
The new lightning mapper will also help forecasters and firefighters identify areas prone to fires sparked by lightning, NOAA says. A significant increase in total lightning activity will now be able to be spotted, often many minutes before radar detects the potential for severe weather.
