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Full catalog/lohrac
lohrac·v2.3.2015·dataset

Yearly lightning frequency worldwide (0.5 degree)

LIS/OTD 0.5 Degree High Resolution Annual Climatology (HRAC) V2.3.2015
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 3 HDF4netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Maps of how often lightning strikes each year across the globe, expressed as flash rates on a half-degree grid.

How it's made. Combined from two space-based lightning sensors, the OTD on Orbview-1 and the LIS on the TRMM satellite, merged into a long-term annual average.

How & where you'd use it. A go-to reference for where lightning is common worldwide, useful for studying storms, climate patterns, and lightning risk; the tropics are best covered, with high latitudes filled in by the OTD sensor.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Atmospheric Electricity › LightningAtmosphere › Weather Events › Lightning

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1995-05-04 → 2014-12-31
  • Measured byOrbView-1 (OTD) · TRMM (LIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-179.75, -89.75, 179.75, 89.75
  • 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 LIS/OTD 0.5 Degree High Resolution Annual Climatology (HRAC) contains a variety of gridded climatologies of total lightning flash rates obtained from two lightning detection sensors - the spaceborne Optical Transient Detector (OTD) on Orbview-1 and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. The long LIS (equatorward of about 38 degree) record makes the merged climatology most robust in the tropics and subtropics, while the high latitude data is entirely from OTD. The HRAC dataset includes annual flash rate climatology data on a 0.5 degree grid in HDF and netCDF-4 format.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="lohrac",
    version="2.3.2015",
    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.