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20010703: [Fwd: Re: Lightning Data Contacts?]



>From:  "Thomas Renkevens" <address@hidden>
>Organization:  SATEPS
>Keywords:  200107031747.f63HlZ115432 NLDN Lightning

Tom,

Sorry I didn't jump on this one when it first came in.  Luckily, a
conversation I had earlier today reminded me that a response was
overdue.

>We in SAETPS are thinking about trying to get our hands on lightning
>data. I recall years ago, we used to get it, and it was used in McIDAS. 

I added NLDN lightning data support to Unidata McIDAS a number of years
ago.  The good news for universities is that they can get the data
through the Unidata IDD (point-to-point transfer only, no fanout)
free-of-charge and very quickly.  If you do start getting the NLDN
data, I would recommend that you adopt the work I have already done.
This work includes:

o data decoder
o NLDN MD file schema
o ADDE application for plotting the data

>Then the plug got pulled since it was about to get very expensive.

As I understand things, the NLDN lightning data from Global Atmospherics,
Inc. (http://www.glatmos.com/) is pretty pricey.  Apparently, their
main customers are power companies.

>I asked Dee Wade at SSEC if she knew of companies that supply lightning
>data (I can think of a few), and she mentioned Unidata.

Unfortunately, we can only supply the NLDN data to universities.  When
I say 'we', I mean the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at SUNY
Albany.  They are the site that sends the NLDN data to universities in
LDM-to-LDM transfers.

>I believe that
>data feed is only available for Universities and education purposes,
>correct?

Yes.  I wish it was not so, but...

>Do you know of any place where we (SATEPS) could go to
>purchase such data?  Of course - lowest possible cost for highest
>quality data :)

I would suggest you contact Global Atmospherics, Inc.:

http://www.glatmos.com/contact/contact.html

If/when you do this, I would _greatly_ appreciate it if you do not
mention that Unidata universities are getting the data for free.  The
reason for this is not that this is being done illegally, but, rather,
that the procedure that was setup for the free data sharing with
universities was put in place a number of years ago, and we don't know
if Global Atmospherics even remembers that this is being done.  The
arrangement that was made was that the data would be used for research
and education and NEVER (never, never, never) show up on a web page!
Given this, and given that SUNYA gets the data through a very old
arrangement (the lightning network was originally housed at SUNYA), we
do not want to startle anyone into deciding that the university
community needs to start paying for the data.  If that happens, this
very useful data will disappear from the Unidata research and education
community as nobody will be able to afford it!  This would be BAD!

>Thanks for any help that you can provide.

As a side note, I recently found out that there is European lightning
data available in NOAAPORT.  For more information, check out:

http://www.torro.org.uk/sfinfo.htm

The SFLOC information is apparently coming in the NOAAPORT
bulletins SFUK30 and SFUK31 which can be listed by McIDAS:

WXTLIST WMO=SFUK30
SFUK30 EGRR 101700                                              2001191 1712
SFLOC 66612 170/0 91090 92020 51362 60082 59182 55331 54071 45110
52273 54072 53071 54313 52063 66173 61090 48291 52053 49273 59180
50272 49281 54062 66171 47092 57193 53052 93020 47112 53350 59243
55341 94020 55333 44181 51363=
WXTLIST: done
 
WXTLIST WMO=SFUK31
SFUK31 EGRR 101730                                              2001191 1741
SFLOC 66612 670/0 91090 92020 53350 55333 50313 54313 53060 48322
59243 44181 66163 44261 47162 51313 53091 47133 46171 44182 60242
51271 44190 50373 53360 62142 50321 64241 52073 93020 47120 47112
60083 58183 57190 45141 54072 49281 53073 56017 51362 94020 44183
50280 51363 95020 45112 52353=
WXTLIST: done

The sfinfo.html URL above has information on (or pointers to information
on) how to decode the data.  This would be a very useful thing to add
to the NLDN decoding that I already have.  Now, if I just had some time...

Tom

>Tom Renkevens
>301-763-8081 x109
>address@hidden

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Lightning Data Contacts?
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 15:13:05 -0500
From: Dee Wade <address@hidden>
To: Thomas Renkevens <address@hidden>
CC: "dee.wade" <address@hidden>,Dave Santek
<address@hidden>
References: <address@hidden>

Tom,
Dave is on vacation so unless he is reading his email from where ever
he is you won't hear from him for a week or so.

The only access we have to lightning data here is through Unidata which
is the SUNYA data.  To the best of my knowledge the SUNYA data is all
we have used for many years.  TO the best of my knowledge there is no
lightning data on the NOAAPORT broadcast.

Sorry I could not of more help.
Dee 
 

Thomas Renkevens wrote:
> 
> Dee or Dave,
> 
> Do you know of a proven source (other than Unidata) that provides
> lightning data that can then be used in McIDAS?  Someone here is looking
> for such data for a non McIDAS project, but  if we can get it into
> McIDAS, we can use it, and they can reformat it.  I think Global
> Atmospherics or Harris can do this.
> How about NOAAPORT?  Is lightning data available if we had a NOAAPORT
> Ingestor?
> Of course, we are looking for an inexpensive, yet high quality,
> reliable, source of data.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Tom
> 301-763-8081 x109

-- 
Dee Wade
McIDAS User Services and SSEC Data Center            
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison                        Email:
address@hidden   
1225 West Dayton Street                                   Voice:
608.263.0527            
Madison, WI  53706                                          Fax:
608.263.6738
                          
Web: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mug        
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/datacenter

--
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* Tom Yoksas                                             UCAR Unidata Program *
* (303) 497-8642 (last resort)                                  P.O. Box 3000 *
* address@hidden                                   Boulder, CO 80307 *
* Unidata WWW Service                             http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/*
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>From address@hidden Tue Jul 10 13:43:15 2001
>Subject: Re: 20010703: [Fwd: Re: Lightning Data Contacts?]

Tom,

Thanks for the detailed information.  Not sure if we will pursue data
from Global Atmospherics at this time, but if so, I will keep your
wishes per your email below.

Tom