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NOAA GOES-R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) Level 2 Lightning Detection: Events, Groups, and Flashes

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2018-01-19T00:00:00.000+00:00
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper Level 2 Lightning Detection product contains a list of lightning flashes, and their constituent groups and events. The definition of and relationship among flashes, groups, and events are governed by the following spatial and temporal characteristics: An event represents the signal detected from the cloud top associated with a lightning emission in an individual sensor pixel for a 2ms integration period; A group represents the events detected in adjacent sensor pixels for the same integration period as an event; A flash represents a series of measurements constrained by temporal and spatial extent thresholds that are associated with one or more groups. The parent, child relationship among specific flashes, groups, and events is stored in the product. Data for each flash includes an energy-weighted centroid latitude, longitude location, time span of occurrence, amount of radiant energy, and coverage area. Data for each group includes an energy-weighted centroid latitude, longitude location, mean time of occurrence, amount of radiant energy, and coverage area. Data for each event includes a latitude, longitude location, time of occurrence, and amount of radiant energy. The product includes data quality information for each flash and group. A Lightning Detection product file contains a set of flashes, and its constituent groups and events for a 20 second period. The units of measure for the flash, group, and event radiant energy values is Joules. The units of measure for the flash and group coverage areas is square meters.

Resources

23 resources available

  • NCEI Dataset Landing Page

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-16 Google Cloud Bucket Explorer (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-18 Google Cloud Bucket Explorer (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-19 Google Cloud Bucket Explorer (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-17 Google Cloud Bucket Explorer (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-16/18 Google Cloud Landing Page (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • NCEI Archive Information Request System

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • NOAA CLASS Data Search and Order

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-R Terrestrial Weather (ABI/GLM)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • Product Definition and Users' Guide (PUG) Vol.1 Main

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • Product Definition and Users' Guide (PUG) Vol.5 Level 2+ Products

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • Registry of Open Data on AWS

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-16 AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-17 AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • GOES-18 AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • GOES-19 AWS S3 Explorer (Region: us-east-1)

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • Azure Landing Page (Region: europe-west)

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • GOES-17 Google Cloud Landing Page (Region: US-multiple)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • Baseline Product - Lightning Detection: Events, Groups, and Flashes Webpage

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • GOES Operational Status - NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • Journal article published May 2013 by Elsevier (Atmospheric Research)

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

  • GOES-R Program Document Library

    FILE
    Visit Page

  • Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords

    PLACEHOLDER/VALUE
    Download

Find Related Datasets

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Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Electricity > Lightning Geographic Region > Equatorial Geographic Region > Mid-Latitude Geographic Region > Tropics Geographic Region > Northern Hemisphere Geographic Region > Southern Hemisphere Geographic Region > Western Hemisphere Continent > North America > United States Of America Continent > South America Continent > North America > Central America Ocean > Atlantic Ocean Ocean > Pacific Ocean Vertical Location > Troposphere Vertical Location > Land Surface GOES > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites GLM > Geostationary Lightning Mapper GOES-16 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 GOES-17 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17 GOES-18 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 18 GOES-19 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 19 10 km - < 50 km or approximately .09 degree - < .5 degree < 1 second DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO > Office of Satellite and Product Operations, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce gov.noaa.class:GRGLMPROD GLM-L2-LCFA GRGLMPROD GLML2LCFA

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
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}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description The Geostationary Lightning Mapper Level 2 Lightning Detection product contains a list of lightning flashes, and their constituent groups and events. The definition of and relationship among flashes, groups, and events are governed by the following spatial and temporal characteristics: An event represents the signal detected from the cloud top associated with a lightning emission in an individual sensor pixel for a 2ms integration period; A group represents the events detected in adjacent sensor pixels for the same integration period as an event; A flash represents a series of measurements constrained by temporal and spatial extent thresholds that are associated with one or more groups. The parent, child relationship among specific flashes, groups, and events is stored in the product. Data for each flash includes an energy-weighted centroid latitude, longitude location, time span of occurrence, amount of radiant energy, and coverage area. Data for each group includes an energy-weighted centroid latitude, longitude location, mean time of occurrence, amount of radiant energy, and coverage area. Data for each event includes a latitude, longitude location, time of occurrence, and amount of radiant energy. The product includes data quality information for each flash and group. A Lightning Detection product file contains a set of flashes, and its constituent groups and events for a 20 second period. The units of measure for the flash, group, and event radiant energy values is Joules. The units of measure for the flash and group coverage areas is square meters.
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identifier gov.noaa.ncdc:C01527
issued 2018-01-19T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Earth Science > Atmosphere > Atmospheric Electricity > Lightning",
  "Geographic Region > Equatorial",
  "Geographic Region > Mid-Latitude",
  "Geographic Region > Tropics",
  "Geographic Region > Northern Hemisphere",
  "Geographic Region > Southern Hemisphere",
  "Geographic Region > Western Hemisphere",
  "Continent > North America > United States Of America",
  "Continent > South America",
  "Continent > North America > Central America",
  "Ocean > Atlantic Ocean",
  "Ocean > Pacific Ocean",
  "Vertical Location > Troposphere",
  "Vertical Location > Land Surface",
  "GOES > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites",
  "GLM > Geostationary Lightning Mapper",
  "GOES-16 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16",
  "GOES-17 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17",
  "GOES-18 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 18",
  "GOES-19 > Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 19",
  "10 km - < 50 km or approximately .09 degree - < .5 degree",
  "< 1 second",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/STAR > Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/OSPO > Office of Satellite and Product Operations, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "gov.noaa.class:GRGLMPROD",
  "GLM-L2-LCFA",
  "GRGLMPROD",
  "GLML2LCFA"
]
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2018-01-19T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
references 
                                            [
  "https://www.goes-r.gov/products/baseline-lightning-detection.html",
  "https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/status.html",
  "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2013.01.006",
  "https://www.goes-r.gov/resources/docs.html"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial -8.44,-66.56,156.44,66.56
temporal 2017-07-05T00:00:00+00:00/2017-07-05T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA GOES-R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) Level 2 Lightning Detection: Events, Groups, and Flashes

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