Flash Optical Energy from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper

Abstract

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - 16 (GOES-16) Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is evaluated for many months during the Post Launch Product Test (PLPT) phase in order to ensure that optimal products are available for both the operational forecasting and broader scientific research communities. An essential aspect of the PLPT phase is to obtain a benchmark of the GLM lightning optical amplitude, so that any long-term degradation in the nadir-staring GLM camera system can be realized and quantitatively assessed. This work provides a preliminary benchmark over a 60-day period using Provisionally Validated data.