The TRMM/LIS Lightning Flashes (Scaled) layer indicates the average number of totals scaled lightning flashes from 4 May 1995 to 31 December 2013. The scaled flashes are the raw lightning flashes that have been scaled by detection efficiency values of the instruments, which varies throughout the day since lightning is easier to detect at night than during the day. The imagery resolution is 3 to 6 kilometers and is available as a single layer for viewing in Worldview/Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS). This layer was constructed through the detection of total lightning occurring in the Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, and then were scaled to be more regional measurements.

The LIS instrument contains a staring imager which is optimized to locate and detect lightning with storm-scale resolution of 3 to 6 kilometers over a large region of the Earth’s surface. The field-of-view is sufficient to observe a point on the Earth or a cloud for about 80 seconds, adequate to estimate the flashing rate of many storms. The instrument records the time of occurrence of a lightning event and estimates the location.

References: GHRC: LIS/OTD 2.5 Degree Low Resolution Full Climatology (LRFC); GHRC: Lighting Imaging Sensor (LIS) Overview; Albrecht, R.I., et al. The 13 years of TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor: From individual flash characteristics to decadal tendencies. XIV International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, August 8-12 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Products in LIS-OTD gridded climatology files; Cecil, D.J., et al. Gridded lightning climatology from TRMM-LIS and OTD: Dataset description, Atmospheric Research, Volumes 135–136, January 2014, Pages 404–414