LIS Lightning Diurnal Climatology at 0.1 Degree Resolution

NASA's LIS 0.1 Degree Very High Resolution Gridded Lightning Diurnal Climatology dataset provides gridded climatologies of total lightning flash rates from the Lightning Imaging Sensor aboard the TRMM satellite. It covers a 16-year period from January 1998 through December 2013, focusing on Earth's tropical and subtropical regions. The dataset includes annual means, diurnal cycles, and annual cycles of flash rates at a 0.1-degree spatial resolution.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the mean diurnal cycle of flash rates with 24-hour resolution for storm detection studies.
• Investigating the mean annual cycle of flash rates using daily, monthly, or seasonal resolution datasets.
• Mapping the distribution and variability of total lightning across tropical and subtropical regions at 0.1-degree grid resolution.
• Applying 49-day and 1-degree boxcar moving averages to smooth low-flash-rate regions in annual cycle analyses.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term observational record spanning 16 years (1998-2013).
• Offers high spatial resolution climatologies at a 0.1-degree grid.
• Includes multiple temporal aggregations: annual mean, diurnal cycle, and annual cycle.
• Applies statistical smoothing (49-day and 1-degree boxcar averages) to improve signal clarity.

Limitations

• Specific column names and dataset row counts are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms (2026-03-13 on datagov vs. 2013-12-31 on nasa_earthdata).
• License information is unclear, listed as 'other-license-specified' on datagov but 'None' on nasa_earthdata.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing and subsequent gridded climatology generation.

Time Range

1998-01-01 to 2013-12-31

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:09:09.886945

Geography

Earth's tropical and subtropical regions.