Analysis of lightning data from the DMSP satellite

Abstract

A lightning detector, consisting of 12 silicon photodiodes, each with a field of view of 700 × 700 km on the earth, has been flown on a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite. Peak amplitude of the lightning flash was digitized within a range of 16 discrete levels, and the largest amplitude observed within a 1‐s sample interval was recorded. Approximately 10,000 lightning flashes were analyzed. The frequency of occurrence of peak lightning power within the range 10 8 –10 10 W has been obtained. The median power level was 1 × 10 9 W, and about 2% of the lightning flashes had peak power greater than 10 10 W. These data are compared to similar results from a ground‐based experiment. Lightning flash rate per unit area of cloud cover in a storm complex was 4 × 10 −5 s −1 km −2 . The long‐term flash rate per unit surface area on the earth was 6 × 10 −8 s −1 km −2 , but this value may be biased toward high rates by the method of selecting the data base.