Hourly Thunder Hour Lightning Data Over the Americas from Geostationary Satellites

January 2019 onward, this dataset provides hourly thunder hour metrics derived from continuous lightning detection by NOAA's GOES-16, -17, -18, and -19 satellites. It offers a long-term record for tracking lightning trends across the Americas and surrounding oceans at a 0.05° spatial resolution. The dataset is produced by the GHRC_DAAC organization.

Use Cases

• Modeling thunderstorm frequency trends using the hourly thunder hour metric across the Americas.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of lightning activity from the 0.05° latitude/longitude gridded data.
• Correlating thunder hour data with other meteorological variables like precipitation or convective available potential energy (CAPE).
• Validating regional lightning detection networks against the continuous geostationary satellite observations.
• Studying diurnal and seasonal cycles of lightning occurrence using the hourly time-series data.

Strengths

• Continuous temporal coverage from January 2019 onward using multiple operational satellites.
• Broad spatial coverage from the Aleutian Islands to the western tip of Africa.
• Data provided at a consistent 0.05° latitude/longitude resolution.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution of 0.05° may be too coarse for localized storm cell analysis.
• Dataset is limited to the detection capabilities of the GLM instrument, which may have geographic variations in sensitivity.
• Specific row count, file size, and sample data details are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES R-series) Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments.

Collection Method

Calculated from optical lightning detections by sensors aboard GOES-16, -17, -18, and -19 satellites.

Time Range

From 1 January 2019 onward.

Freshness

null

Geography

Region from the Aleutian Islands and New Zealand eastward to the western tip of Africa, covering the Americas and surrounding oceans.