Cloud and Convective Characterization of Lightning Measurements from the 2017 GOES-R Post Launch Test Field Campaign

The 2017 GOES-R Post Launch Test (PLT) field campaign was conducted to validate the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments on board the GOES-16 satellite. As part of the campaign, a suite of airborne lightning and cloud measurements were collected from the high-altitude ER-2 aircraft, complemented by ground-based lightning and radar data. Of particular interest to an ongoing historical reanalysis of these data is (a) the characterization of optical measurements of lightning from the airborne Fly’s Eye GLM Simulator (FEGS) using ground-based detection of lightning radio emission from Lightning Mapping Arrays (LMAs) and (b) how these relationships vary with cloud and convective properties. The GOES-R PLT campaign included six ER-2 flights over an LMA, capturing lightning that occurred in multi-mode convection in varying regions across the continental United States. Multi-spectral optical measurements from the FEGS are characterized using the spatial and temporal characteristics of matched lightning flashes reconstructed from LMA detections. These relationships are then interpreted using cloud depth inferred from the airborne Cloud Physics Lidar as well as precipitation type and ice water content retrieved from ground-based polarimetric Doppler radars. These data are used to address how the interpretation of optical lightning data and its portrayal of lightning characteristics vary with cloud and convective context.