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[IDD #JYX-248345]: Lightning Data Access

Hi Joe,

re:
> I would like to find out information on how to access the lightning data
> which is available on your site.

We (Unidata Program Center/UCAR) get three different feeds of lightning
data, two of which are from ground-based networks and the other is
the lightning products being created by the new generation of U.S.
geostationary satellites commonly referred to as the GOES-R series.

The two ground based lightning networks are:

NLDN
USPLN

Unfortunately, we are _not_ allowed to relay/redistribute data from
either of these networks (the restriction is imposed by the owners
of the data, not us).

The third source of lightning data which is freely available is the
products from the GOES-R series of satellites.  The redistribution
mechanisms for these data are:

LDM/IDD feed
THREDDS Data Server (TDS) access
McIDAS ADDE remote access

The LDM/IDD is software/a project built on top of the software that
relays data in real time to machines running our LDM (Local Data
Manager) package on Unix/Linux machines (not Windows!).  The LDM/IDD
is our preferred method of distribution of the GOES-R lightning data
as it is a push system that delivers the data in a very timely (typically
less than 1 second) manner to a large community of users.

TDS provides remote, programmatic access to the GOES-R satellite lightning
(GLM) products for applications like MetPy, and a variety of other packages
that provide web-based access methods.  The TDS also provides a web interface
through which the products can be accessed.  Our MetPy (Meteorological Python
package) works nicely for users who want/need to script in Python.

The McIDAS ADDE access method the GOES-R lightning data requires one to
run an application that is ADDE enabled such as McIDAS-X, our IDV, and
McIDAS-V.  We provide free and open access to the IDV while we are
only allowed to redistribute McIDAS-X to educational institutions.
McIDAS-V is available from the University of Wisconsin's Space Science
an Engineering Center.

The biggest question that comes to mind in terms of your use of lightning
data is what application(s) are you wanting to use to display/analyze
the data?  Accompanying this question is whether the application you
want/intend to use is able to use data in netCDF4 format?

re:
> Thanks for the help.

No worries.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: JYX-248345
Department: Support IDD
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed
===================
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