Comparisons of LIS and GLM Lightning observations
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on GOES-16 and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS, additional information here) on the International Space Station (ISS) both observe lightning. The GLM has nadir resolution of approximately 8 km, and is in geostationary orbit, about 36000 km above the Earth’s surface. In contrast, the LIS has a resolution of approximately 4 km, and it’s on the ISS, only 400 km above the Earth’s surface. Both sensors detect the optical signal of the lightning. The animation above shows 2 minutes of LIS Flash Events plotted (in yellow) on top of 5-minute aggregates of GLM Flash Extent Density (updated at 1-minute time-steps). The animation below shows the same LIS observations, but plotted in black, on top of GOES-16 ABI Band 13 imagery. Many of the LIS flash events are colocated with cold cloud top as defined by the GOES-16 Band 13 (10.3 µm) brightness temperatures — meaning that the optical signal is strongest there. That’s not always the case though, as shown in this image with LIS data from 13:19:48.
