Engineering topics

Boeck, William

Publications and source records attributed to Boeck, William.

5 records

NASA NTRS2006

Performance Assessment of the Optical Transient Detector and Lightning Imaging Sensor: Clustering Algorithm - Part 2

We describe the clustering algorithm used by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) and the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) for combining the lightning pulse data into events, groups, flashes, and areas. Events are single pixels that exceed the LIS/OTD background level during a single frame (2 ms). Groups are clusters of events that occur within the same frame and in adjacent pixels. Flashes are clusters of groups that occur within 330 ms and either 5.5 km (for LIS) or 16.5 km (for OTD) of each other. Areas are clusters of flashes that occur within 16.5 km of each other. Many investigators are utilizing the LIS/OTD flash data; therefore, we test how variations in the algorithms for the event group and group-flash clustering affect the flash count for a subset of the LIS data. We divided the subset into areas with low (1-3), medium (4-15), high (16-63), and very high (64+) flashes to see how changes in the clustering parameters affect the flash rates in these different sizes of areas. We found that as long as the cluster parameters are within about a factor of two of the current values, the flash counts do not change by more than about 20%. Therefore, the flash clustering algorithm used by the LIS and OTD sensors create flash rates that are relatively insensitive to reasonable variations in the clustering algorithms.

Mach, Douglas M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Confirmation of NLDN Long Range Strike Locations with LIS Observations

This study compares the lightning locations reported by the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) with the lightning locations determined by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). The NLDN system identifies the rf signature of cloud-to-ground lightning. The LIS data is the top level of a hierarchy of optical data objects. The centroid and timing of each LIS lightning activity center are compared with each flash in a subset of the NLDN long range lightning location data in a portion of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea consisting of those locations more than 625 km from any sensor. This subset is produced by analyzing each reported NLDN location to determine if that location is within the LIS field of view at the time of the reported flash. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite (TRMM) orbit limits the cross-sensor comparison to tropical and sub-tropical regions. Because the rf-detection system depends on ionospheric propagation conditions, a separate analysis was made for daylight conditions at both source and sensor as well as nighttime at both places. A full year of data is compared to provide an adequate sample of each data set. Confirmation of lightning in the general location of the NLDN report is established when LIS detected one or more centers of lightning activity within a 2 degree radius from the NLDN location.

Boeck, William↗

NASA NTRS1999

An Intercomparison of Ground, Airborne, and Space Instrumentation Definitions of the Lightning Element

For the past century, scientists have made quantitative measurements of lightning discharges. In the process, they refined the definition of a lightning unit, or basic quantum of lightning, in order to base it on observable parameters. In this paper, we will use cluster analysis to derive a basic spatial and temporal definition or scale length for the unit of lightning. We will use data from three different systems that detected pulses from the same storm complex over Central Oklahoma during June, 1998. Since the different instruments detect lightning in different ways with different resolutions, there may not be a single definition of the unit of lightning that can be applied to all three systems. However, common components can be found since all instrumentation are detecting aspects of the same phenomenon.

Mach, Douglas↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Lightning Imaging Sensor

The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is a NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) platform designed to acquire and investigate the distribution and variability of total lightning (i.e., cloud-to-ground and intracloud) between q35' in latitude. Since lightning is one of the responses of the atmosphere to thermodynamic and dynamic forcing, the LIS data is being used to detect deep convection without land-ocean bias, estimate the precipitation mass in the mixed phased region of thunderclouds, and differentiate storms with strong updrafts from those with weak vertical motion.

Christian, Hugh J.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Cross-Sensor Calibration of the GAI Long Range Detection Network

The long range component of the North American Lightning Detection Network has been providing experimental data products since July 1996, offering cloud-to-ground lightning coverage throughout the Atlantic and Western Pacific oceans, as well as south to the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The network experiences a strong decrease in detection efficiency with range, which is also significantly modulated by differential propagation under day, night and terminator-crossing conditions. A climatological comparison of total lightning data observed by the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and CG lightning observed by the long range network is conducted, with strict quality control and allowance for differential network performance before and after the activation of the Canadian Lightning Detection Network. This yields a first-order geographic estimate of long range network detection efficiency and its spatial variability. Intercomparisons are also performed over the continental US, allowing large scale estimates of the midlatitude climatological IC:CG ratio and its possible dependence on latitude.

Boccippio, Dennis J.↗