Comparison of thunderstorm data from the satellite Lightning Imager (Meteosat-12) and the lightning detection system of the SRC "Planeta" in the European territory of Russia.

Thunderstorm activity in cumulonimbus clouds often occurs in severe and extreme weather events, thereby the operational monitoring of thunderstorm activity with a high frequency and spatial resolution is an actual problem.

SRC “Planeta” operates lightning detection system (LDS), consisting of 8 lightning sensors Vaisala in Central and Southern federal districts. Similar LDS with 6 lightning sensors Vaisala is operated by High-Mountain Geophysical Institute in North Caucasus [1] and this allows to monitor lightning activity over the big part of European territory of Russia. Lightning sensors Vaisala detect magnetic direction and time-of-arrival of lightning signal in low frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum (1-350 kHz). After data processing LDS provides information about datetime, location and current of two lightning types (cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud or intracloud).

Lightning detection by imagers on board of geostationary satellites (GOES/GLM, FY-4A/LMI, MTG/LI) is an alternative of ground-based lightning detection systems.

Satellite Lightning Imager (LI) is launched on board Meteosat-12 satellite (0.3ºw) and detects optical pulses from total lightning activity on the cloud top at 777.4 nm with 4.5 km resolution at sub-satellite point and integration time of 1 ms[2]. Field-of-view coverage is more than 80% of the Earth disc and covers Europe, including the European part of Russia. The LI output data are available to users in two main forms – lightning groups and flashes – and also as secondary data, reduced to the grid of the FCI scanning radiometer (part of the payload of the same satellite) and accumulated over 30 s. Lightning groups of LI are combinations of adjacent (sidewise or diagonally) pixels with detected optical pulses from lightning during one frame, which is an analogue of lightning strokes, detected by ground-based systems. Lightning flashes LI are the groups combined by spatial-temporal features [2].

Case studies of thunderstorms in the European territory of Russia in March-May 2025 are considered. It is shown that the thunderstorm zones are determined by the data of the LI/Meteosat-12 lightning detector and the ground-based LDS of the SRC "Planeta" have a fairly good correspondence with each other, but the satellite detector often detects a greater number of lightning flashes. Probably, this occurs, because the satellite imager detects more lightning flashes in and between clouds, which makes up ¾ of the total number of lightnings, while the ground-based LDS of SRC “Planeta” more likely detects cloud-to-ground flashes (up to 95% in the center of the network) than cloud-to-cloud flashes (up to 70% in the center of the network). It was also noted, that lightning flashes, detected by LI, are shifted in the eastward direction by a distance of about 10-20 km in comparison with the GPS data of SRC “Planeta”, which is probably related to the worse spatial resolution of the satellite device at the field-of-view edge and parallax errors.

References:

1. A. Kh. Adzhiev, V. N. Stasenko, and V. O. Tapaskhanov. Lightning detection system in the North Caucasus. Russ. Meteorol. Hydrol. 38, 1–5 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068373913010019

2. MTG LI level 2 data guide. https://user.eumetsat.int/resources/user-guides/mtg-li-level-2-data-guide