Impacts to Aviation Weather Center Operations Using Total Lightning Observations from the Pseudo-GLM

Abstract

The Aviation Weather Center (AWC) is responsible for delivering accurate, consistent, and timely weather information for safe and efficient flight across the United States airspace system along with international obligations. One of the key concerns for forecasters is the prediction and monitoring of convection which directly affects air routes as well as ground operations. Lightning observations are a vital component of available observations helping to confirm the presence of convection and verify forecasts. Up to this time the AWC has relied solely on ground-based cloud-to-ground only detection networks. With the upcoming launch of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) aboard GOES-R, the AWC has the opportunity to expand the use of lightning observations by observing total lightning (i.e., the combination of both cloud-to-ground and intra-cloud observations). AWC and NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) have collaborated to assess a demonstration GLM product, the pseudo-GLM, derived from ground-based lightning mapping arrays. This collaboration has focused on the utility of using total lightning in aviation weather forecasting in preparation for the GLM instrument. This paper presents several small cases identified by forecasters using the pseudo-GLM data in operations and discusses the role of GLM data in the future.