Wayne FaasChief, NOAA National Climatic Data

Center Data Operations DivisionDecember 3, 2003

What Will be Covered

Operational use of lightning data in NOAA NCDC hydrometeorological operations

Potential uses of lightning data Potential lightning data uses with radar reflectivity

data to improve and develop remote sensing projects Lightning data uses at the Air Force Combat

Climatology

Operational Use of Lightning Data in NOAA NCDC Operations

Precipitation Validation (PrecipVal)

• An Automated, Spatial Precipitation Quality Control & Estimator System

• Improve data quality by providing automated spatial review of precipitation point data using other sources of data (in-situ, radar, satellite & model)

• Currently in prototype

Operational Use: PrecipVal Components

1. Collect external data sources to be incorporated in PrecipVal

2. Create Layers (grids) for specified observation times

3. Perform rules based inter-comparison of precipitation point data to derived validation grids

4. Create confidence flags based on threshold agreement between layers

Operational Use: Current Quality Control Layers

In-Situ (ASOS/AWOS/CRN) Radar Model Satellite (7 Individual products)

Modular System:

Layers Can Be Added / Deleted

Operational Use: RADAR

Grids created using NOAA WSR-88D products:Digital Precip Array (DPA): NEXRAD level III product Resides in NCDC Archive Present in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico Resolution: 4.7625 kmStage-4 Radar: Accessed from National Center for Environmental Predication

(future plans to access from NOMADS) Mosaics DPA into ConUS Grid. Resolution: 4.7625 km

Operational Use: Model Data

Grids created from NOAA model output:

Current model data used Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) NCEP Product (access from NOMADS) Resolution: 20.3176 km

Operational Use: Satellite

Grids created using NOAA satellite products:7 Satellite Products (NESDIS) Stage-4 Operational Auto-Estimator Hydro-Estimator without Radar Correction Hydro-Estimator with Radar Correction Microwave/IR blend GMSRA with nighttime screen Original GMSRA (GOES Multispectral Rainfall

Algorithm)Resolution: 4.7625 km

Potential Uses of Lightning Data

Correlation studies• Nationally, regionally• Daytime, Nocturnal• Events

• Severe Storms and Tornadoes• Hurricanes• Precipitation• Floods• Snow/Ice storms/Blizzards

• Extreme events• Flash floods• Wildfires

Potential Use with Radar Reflectivity Data to Improve and Develop Remote Sensing Projects

Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) algorithm development• Reflectivity to rain rate transformation• Identification of convective areas integrated into parameter selection

Delineation of cloud areas associated with lightning • Identify icing areas – Bright band• Spatial extent of raining areas – QPE spatial resolution

Advection effect correction• Include lighting data in development of algorithms• Correct for sampling problems of radar – QPE temporal resolution

Data mining of QPE and lightning• Find relation with convective rainfall and hail• Identify hail climatology

Lightning climatology • Parse out regions for comparison with radar rainfall climatologies• Patterns of highly convective precipitation

AF Combat Climatology Center Operational Uses of Lightning Data(Restricted Redistribution of Data)

Site specific lightning climatologies - frequency of lightning strikes within a certain radius of a location

Post event analysis - what lightning strikes occurred within a certain radius of a location

Distribution of Lightning Data

Restricted redistribution to appropriate users

NCDC Contacts

Planning Office – John Jensen Data Operations – Wayne Faas/Stephen Del Greco Scientific Services – Dave Easterling Remote Sensing and Applications – John

Bates/Brian Nelson