WSI Lightning Data via Unidata

WSI Corporation is pleased to offer real-time lightning stroke data from the North American Precision Lightning Network (NAPLN) and the Global Lightning Network (GLN) through the Unidata program. NAPLN and GLN data are made available to universities at no cost over the Internet for educational and research purposes.

Registration is required to request this data, and the free feed is available on an annually renewed basis. Registered users will receive NAPLN data from the primary and backup servers using the Unidata Local Data Manager (LDM) software. The decoders provided by Unidata for GEMPAK and McIDAS software packages support this data format. Details for configuring your LDM configuration will be sent after registration is complete and the distribution LDM servers have been configured to allow your system.

The lightning data feeds consist of real-time data collected in a 1-minute bin, containing cloud-to-ground lightning stroke data and some cloud flash discharges. For additional technical details, see Lightning Data Products. If your research focuses on North America or the continental United States, please request the NAPLN feed with boundaries of 5N to 65N, 52W to 140W. The GLN (Global Lightning Network) feed is a composite of the NAPLN data over those same bounds and the Global Lightning Network data elsewhere.

The USPLN data feed is still available with boundaries of 20N to 52N, 65W to 128W). See USPLN Data Available via the Unidata LDM for details. For new subscribers, the NAPLN data feed is preferred due to its slightly larger extent. If you currently receive USPLN data and wish to switch to the NAPLN data feed, contact Kim Rauenzahn at WSI (see contact information below) to alter your subscription settings.

The WSI LDM server will be the primary distribution point for lightning data, failover feed support will be provided by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach). Data are provided in the following format:

NAPLN/GLN Extended Format Data Record Contents (ASCII)

• Header
• Data record containing comma-separated values:
1. Date/Time[CCYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.msec]
2. Latitude[+-DD.fffffff]
3. Longitude[+-DDD.fffffff] (west negative convention)
4. Signed peak amplitude (sign indicating polarity, zero->cloud-to-cloud,intracloud, cloud-to-air)
5. Error ellipse semi-major and semi-minor axes [km] and orientation of semi-major axis

Example NAPLN/GLN Data File

1. LIGHTNING-NAPLN1EX,2008-09-17T19:00:00,2008-09-17T18:58:55
2. 2008-09-17T18:58:39.044,32.2935404,-76.6024085,-17.9,0.75,0.25,-51
3. 2008-09-17T18:58:40.548,29.4853045,-81.5391171,-7.5,0.25,0.25,-58
4. 2008-09-17T18:58:42.090,29.4961533,-81.6468673,-5.9,0.25,0.25,-86

For GEMPAK/McIDAS decoders: GEMPAK v5.11.4 / LDM-McIDAS v2009 and newer

1. REQUEST LIGHTNING NAPLN* feedsite.domain feedsite.domain will be provided

pqact Entry

1. LIGHTNING NAPLN1EX
2. PIPE decoders/dcnapln -m 25000 -b 5 -s minute05
3. -d data/gempak/logs/dcnapln.log
4. -e GEMTBL=/home/gempak/GEMPAK5.11.1/gempak/tables
5. data/gempak/napln/YYYYMMDDHHNN_napln.gem

To register, all users must read and agree to the Conditions of Use of WSI Lightning Data associated with this proprietary data set. There are a number of restrictions, including the requirement that all users must be either full-time faculty or staff at the institution, and prohibition of any data redistribution or commercial use or gain from the data.

Please visit: WSI Lightning Data Request Form to register for NAPLN or GLN data and to review the complete description of the restrictions on data use. Responses and access to data are generally granted in less than 1 week. Please send technical/product questions about the lightning data to:

Kim Rauenzahn
Lightning Product Manager
WSI
krauenzahn@wsi.com