Comparison of two cloud to ground stroke datasets-Vaisala and WSI

Abstract

Two lightning stroke data sets for the same time period from a 7854 sq.km. area in the Black Hills, South Dakota USA , one from Vaisala and the other from WSI (Weather Services International now The Weather Company) were compared with respect to number of events, number of positive and negative strokes, amplitude and number of subevents. There was also an attempt to match strokes between the two data sets. The first stroke recorded for each data set took place on June 15 2012 at 3:49 PM MDT and the last stroke for each data set occurred on June 26 2012 at 2:58 PM MDT. The WSI data set has 3974 strokes while the Vaisala data set has 3342 strokes. The data from each set was split into negative and positive stroke sets and were compared with respect to count and match. Daily time plots for negative and positive strokes show more negative strokes for Vaisala with Vaisala showing a much larger negative to positive ratio than WSI. The spatial distribution of strokes that matched up with respect to a specified time criteria are discussed. This comparison suggests that WSI over-reports cloud strokes as ground strokes and records higher peak amplitudes with respect to the Vaisala data.

Citation

Gray, Kathy; Latham, Don; Sopko, Paul. 2018. Comparison of two cloud to ground stroke datasets-Vaisala and WSI. In: 25th International Lightning Detection Conference & 7th International Lightning Meteorology Conference; March 12-15, 2018; Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Vaisala. 7 p.