LIS observations just east of Japan
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) that flies on the International Space Station (ISS) observed about 20 individual flashes in about a minute to the east of Japan on 1 February 2023, as shown in the animation above. Himawari-9 Band 13 clean window infrared (10.41 µm) imagery, below, bracketing the lightning observation times above shows a developing storm system moving out over the Pacific — the comma head of the system is over southern Hokkaido Island. Convective development can be inferred between 35o and 40o N off the coast of Honshu.
Did this system intensify, as one might expect given the presence of lightning? It did. The imagery below, from this site, shows the storm forecast to strengthen from 999 hPa at 0600 UTC to 989 hPa at 1800 UTC on 1 February. LIS data, though infrequent, can give useful information about convection.
