1Goodman , S., and Coauthors, 2013: The GOES-R geostationary lightning mapper (GLM). Atmos. Res., 125-126, 34-49, doi: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2013.01.006.2Hou, A. Y., and Coauthors, 2014: The global precipitation measurement mission. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 95, 701–722, doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00164.1. 3GPM, cited 2017: Precipitation measurement missions. Global Precipitation Measurement Program, NASA. [Available online at http://gpm.nasa.gov/.]4Liu, C., 2017: GPM precipitation feature database, Description Version 1.0. [Available online at http://atmos.tamucc.edu/trmm/data/document/GPM_database_description_1.0_201601.pdf ]

Lightning Characteristics of Tropical Cyclones during the 2017 Hurricane Season from a GLM, ISS-LIS, and GPM Perspective

Lena Heuschera, Patrick Gatlinb, Walt Petersenb

Chuntao Liuc, Daniel J. Cecilb

aUniversity of Alabama-Huntsville, bNASA Marshall Space Flight Center, cTexas A&M Corpus Christi

Special thanks to NSSTC Precipitation Research Group (Earth Science Branch at MSFC), Nana Liu for helping with the level 1C convective PF identification, Kyle Pennington and Chris Phillips for many conversations and pieces of advice. The NASA Weather Program, and Program Manager, Dr. Ramesh Kakar, are acknowledged for funding support.

The distribution of lightning with respect to tropical convective precipitation systems has been well

established in previous studies and more recently by the successful Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

(TRMM). However, TRMM did not provide information about precipitation features poleward of ±38°

latitude. Hence we focus on the evolution of lightning within extra-tropical cyclones traversing the mid-

latitudes, especially its oceans. To facilitate such studies, lightning data from the Geostationary Lightning

Mapper (GLM) onboard GOES-16 and the ISS-LIS were combined with precipitation features (PFs) obtained

from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission constellation of satellites. This study will provide

a new observationally-based view of the tropical to extra-tropical transition focusing on the evolution of

associated precipitation characteristics and impacts to lightning activity and distribution.

Objectives

• Lightning• GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)1 – GLM data are non-operational

data still undergoing testing prior to official release• ISS-LIS

•Precipitation• NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission

• Core Observatory carries Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR; operates at Ku- and Ka-bands) and multi-channel microwave radiometer (GMI)2, 3

• GPM International constellation satellites also carry microwave radiometers• GPM Precipitation Feature (PF) Database4

• Summarizes PF properties • Incorporates GPM constellation passive microwave instruments• Common definition between satellites based on global surface precipitation

Background

Acknowledgements

Data

Introduction

Results

Conclusions and Future Work

References

• The lightning flashes and groups that are associated with precipitation features during the life cycle of Hurricane Irma are also seen to be associated with the convective precipitation features.

• The CPFs have different microwave characteristics than the PFs• At first glance, there seems to be no correlation between the number of flashes/groups and the microwave

characteristics of either the PFs or the CPFs with the small sample size.

Conclusions

Future Work• Develop and refine a Convective Precipitation Database for the GPM constellation• Extend this analysis to the 2017 Hurricane Season to investigate lightning and storm transitions in more detail and

with new and improved releases of GLM data in conjunction with Convective Precipitation Features.• Investigate lightning characteristics in different quadrants and/or eyewall/rainbands of the considered storms

•Identify PFs (defined by surface precipitation rate of 0.1 mm/hr) and obtain associated lightning characteristics during the life cycle of Hurricane Irma•Identify Convective Precipitation Features (CPFs; thresholded surface precipitation rate of 10 mm/hr) for time periods during which there are PFs and obtain associated lightning characteristics•Compare lightning characteristics between the PFs and CPFs for Hurricane Irma

Table 1: Lightning characteristics for the PFs (top line) and the CPFs (bottom line). Characteristics include the number of groups and flashes (from both the GLM and the ISS-LIS), minimum polarization corrected temperature (PCT) at 89 GHz, and the area within the feature with the 89 GHz PCT less than 225 K, 250 K, and 275 K.

Fig. 3: Hurricane Irma on 4 September 2017 from 03-06 UTC. The green circle represents the identified PF, the solid black line represents the tropical storm force wind radius, and the dashed black line represents the CPF. Surface precipitation rate (mm/hr) is shaded.

Fig. 3(Cat. 3)

Fig. 4(Cat. 5)

Fig. 5(Cat. 5)

Fig. 6(Post-tropical)

# of flashes(GLM/ISS-LIS)

0/0

0/-

124/0

124/-

286/0

294/-

N/A

0/-

# of groups(GLM/ISS-LIS)

0/-

0/-

855/-

855/-

2524/-

2524/-

N/A

0/-

Minimum89 GHz PCT(K)

155.83

155.83

105.29

105.29

281.35

126.49

N/A

225.21

Area with 89 GHz

< 225 K (km2)

9,352.53

0.65

22,753.17

0.87

0

1.93

N/A

0

Area with 89 GHz

< 250 K (km2)

31,919.58

1.68

72,354.15

1.57

0

4.38

N/A

162.34

Area with 89 GHz

< 275 K (km2)

70,865.19

2.34

248,051.44

1.63

0

5.32

N/A

162.34

Fig. 4: As in Fig. 3, except for on 6 September from 17-18 UTC.

Fig. 5: As in Fig 3, except for on 7 September from 05-07 UTC.

Fig. 2: As in Fig. 1, except for convective precipitation features (CPFs) with a surface threshold of 10 mm/hr.

Fig. 1: A best track map for Hurricane Irma (black X’s) with associated precipitation features (PFs) with a surface precipitation rate threshold of 0.1 mm/hr plotted. The PFs are colored according to storm strength (Tropical Storm or Tropical Depression – cyan; Category 1-2 Hurricane – red; Category 3-5 Hurricane – dark blue; Extra-Tropical –green).

Fig. 6: As in Fig 3, except for on 12 September from 09-15 UTC.

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