A Comparative Analysis of the Temporal Variability of Lightning Observations and GOES Imagery

Abstract

Lightning Positioning and Tracking System (LPATS) data received by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere via a real-time weather data network were used to study the temporal variability of lightning for a frontal system and hurricane that affected the United States in 1989. Our comparison of these data with GOES-7 imagery revealed that lightning data can help define the development, linearity, and maximum intensity of a frontal band as seen with the correlation of currents discharged by lightning to ground with associated IR temperature fields. Lightning data also revealed a dramatic increase in convection equatorward of Hurricane Chantal's vortex upon her rapid intensification and landfall, and the heavy rainfall amounts associated with the tropical storm correlated to areas of rather frequent lightning activity west of Galveston, Texas, on 1 August 1989.