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Full catalog/comblisath
comblisath·v1·dataset

Hours per year with thunderstorm lightning (ISS + TRMM)

Combined ISS and TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Annual Thunder Hour
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Maps showing the average number of hours per year during which thunder would be heard at each location, a stand-in for how often thunderstorms occur, across the tropics and mid-latitudes.

How it's made. Built by combining lightning observations from two Lightning Imaging Sensors, one on the International Space Station and one on the earlier TRMM satellite, for a combined 24 years of data.

How & where you'd use it. Gives a consistent long-term picture of thunderstorm frequency around the world, useful for climate, weather, and safety studies.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY › LIGHTNINGATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY › LIGHTNING › THUNDER HOUR

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1998-01-01 → 2023-11-16
  • Measured byISS (LIS) · TRMM (LIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -54.75, 180, 54.75
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

This thunder hour dataset is combines lightning observations from both Lightning Imaging Sensors (LIS) that operated aboard the International Space Station (ISS) from 1 March 2017 to 16 November 2023 and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite from 1 January 1998 to 8 April 2015. The dataset represents a combined 24 years of observations. The data are provided at 0.05° latitude/longitude resolution for latitudes between 54.75ºS and 54.75ºN. A thunder hour is defined as an hour during which thunder can be heard from a given location. Thunder hours represent a historical measure of lightning occurrence and a metric of thunderstorm frequency that is comparatively less sensitive to geographic variations in the detection capabilities of a lightning location system. Thunder hours are the average number of hours in a given year during which two or more LIS group centroids were observed within 15 km of each grid point. The Combined LIS annual thunder hour dataset is available as a single netCDF-4 file.

Get the data

comblisath_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="comblisath",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.