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lislip·v4·dataset

Lightning flashes seen from space (TRMM LIS)

Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on TRMM Science Data V4
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 2 HDF4netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Lightning flashes detected from space across Earth's tropical and subtropical regions, capturing where and how often total lightning occurs, both day and night.

How it's made. Collected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and packaged with browse images.

How & where you'd use it. Helps with spotting and studying severe storms and with research into how lightning interacts with the atmosphere.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Weather Events › LightningAtmosphere › Atmospheric Electricity › Lightning

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1998-01-01 → 2015-04-08
  • Measured byTRMM (LIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -40, 180, 40
  • FormatsHDF4, netCDF-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

The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Science Data was collected by the LIS instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite used to detect the distribution and variability of total lightning occurring in the Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions. This data can be used for severe storm detection and analysis, as well as for lightning-atmosphere interaction studies. The LIS instrument makes measurements during both day and night with high detection efficiency. These data are available in both HDF-4 and netCDF-4 formats, with corresponding browse images in GIF format.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="lislip",
    version="4",
    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.