Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) began operation in 1983 as a regional network run by the State University of New York at Albany. Since then, the network has expanded to monitor cloud-to-ground lightning activity across the continental United States, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
To read up on the history of the NLDN, browse over to the Vaisala NLDN30 web site. The site also presents information about interesting lightning events, statistics, and other aspects of lightning detection.
NLDN data is available to Unidata's university community members through a cooperative agreement between the University at Albany, State University of New York, and Vaisala. NLDN data are available at no cost for education and research, under constraints established by Vaisala and SUNY-Albany. You can find more information on Unidata's Lightning Data page.
