Utilizing Total Lightning Information to Diagnose Convective Trends

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suMMArY And Con-Clusions. The use of real-time output from the NALMA has proven benefi-cial to NWS forecasting and warning decision-making. Beyond the standard analysis of cloud-to-ground lightning information, the ability to visualize three-dimensional total lightning within thun-derstorms has provided fore -casters with greater knowl-edge of storm-scale processes and enhanced warning oper -ations. This has led to greater confidence when issuing severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings.Preliminary studies and forecaster surveys suggest that the inclusion of total lightning information pro-vides a unique insight into storm-scale structures that may be crucial to increasing warning lead times and severe storm discernment, especially in situations where radar and other obser-vational datasets provide conflicting signals or partial information. However, further research is certainly needed to develop a more quantifiable measure of the “added value” of total lightning information. To date, over 150 specific cases have been archived for collab-orative post-storm analyses, training, and research purposes. A further emphasis should also be placed on null cases (e.g., when lightning jumps are observed with no associated reports of severe weather) to gain a better understanding of the false-alarm potential of perceived lightning jumps. Likewise, greater em-phasis should be placed on the detection efficiency of ground-based networks so forecasters can recognize when artificial trends in lightning data are strictly related to efficiency or range issues.Building upon the knowledge and lessons learned from the NWS Huntsville and NASA/SpoRT expe-rience in transferring total lightning observations into operations, other offices with nearby total lightning networks have been able to utilize total lightning products in their forecast operations. One outgrowth of this collaboration is Southern Thunder, which brings together total lightning data and product producers and decision-making consumers for periodic workshops to advance the scientific understanding of thunderstorm processes and help develop nowcasting and warning decision-making applications that use total lightning in an operational environment. Presentations from the July 2009 Southern Thunder Workshop can be found at http://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/sport/southern-thunder/presentations.html.Finally, related training and operational experience associated with the NALMA project have aided similar initiatives across the country. Moreover, when the next generation of geostationary satellites are launched