TRMM-LBA LIP: Airborne Lightning and Atmospheric Electricity Measurements

Eight field mills and two conductivity probes aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft captured detailed electrical field measurements of lightning over the Amazon basin. This dataset provides a month-long time series from January to February 1999, specifically collected to validate satellite-based lightning observations from the TRMM mission's Lightning Imaging Sensor. Data is stored in HDF-4 format with accompanying GIF browse imagery.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-based lightning detection (LIS) using high-altitude airborne field mill measurements.
• Analyzing atmospheric conductivity and electric field properties during convective events in the Amazon.
• Studying the spatial and temporal characteristics of lightning within a specific field campaign (TRMM-LBA).
• Correlating aircraft navigation data with in-situ electrical measurements for event localization.

Strengths

• Contains measurements from eight field mills and two conductivity probes, providing multi-sensor data.
• Covers a specific, well-documented 34-day field campaign period from January 22 to February 24, 1999.
• Data originates from a NASA instrument flown on a high-altitude aircraft, suggesting controlled collection methods.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in the available metadata.
• Conflicting metadata exists: one platform lists a last update date in 2026, while another lists the original collection end date in 1999, creating uncertainty about recent modifications.
• The 'other-license-specified' license requires users to seek out the exact terms, which may not be immediately clear.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Lightning Instrument Package (LIP) flown aboard the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft.

Time Range

1999-01-22 to 1999-02-24

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:27:25.632639 (from datagov, though this may be a metadata update, not data update)

Geography

Amazon River basin, Brazil