Stratospheric Lightning Forecasting and Nowcasting Tools

MDA’s planned High Altitude Airship (HAA) will require long term, all weather operational station-keeping capability. During Phase II, a prototype, 3-station national charge moment change network (CMCN) will be established to operationally detect those lightning strokes inducing intense and impulsive electric fields associated with middle atmospheric sprites, halos, elves, etc. (collectively called transient luminous events, or TLEs). The SENTRIH system (a portable display linked via the Internet to a 24x7 meteorological operations center) will provide HAA operators with situational awareness of current TLE-related hazards, plus planning forecasts out to 72 hours. During Phase II, real-time CMCN observations will be confirmed by specialized camera systems located at various locales around the U.S. in order to thoroughly test, document and evaluate the performance of the SENTRIH meteorological display and TLE alerting and forecasting algorithms. At Phase II’s completion, a working software system, documentation and users’ manuals will be available to facilitate transition to the Phase III operational implementation over CONUS through licensing to a commercial partner. SENTRIH will be designed for graceful expansion for application in theater or global operations.