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Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) Combined Monthly Thunder Hour Data Product

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is the first optical lightning detector in geostationary orbit, and GLM sensors operate aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES R-series: GOES-16, -17, -18, and -19). The first to launch was GOES-16 on November 19, 2016 and it was placed in the GOES-East position. On March 1, 2018 GOES-17 launched and would eventually become operational in the GOES-West position. Since that time, the United States has maintained one satellite in each position. Currently, GOES-18 (west) and GOES-19 (east) are the operational satellites. With these instruments, the combined monthly thunder hour dataset has been created. A thunder hour is an hour during which thunder can be heard at a given location. Thunder hours represent a historical measure of lightning occurrence and a metric of thunderstorm frequency that is comparatively less sensitive to geographic variations in the detection capabilities of a lightning location system. The GLM thunder hour dataset will provide a long-term means of tracking trends in lightning occurrence over the Americas and surrounding oceans. The GLM Combined Monthly Thunder Hour dataset is calculated from lightning detections from 1 January 2019 onward, during which time GLMs are operating from GOES-West and GOES-East positions, providing continuous lightning detection for a broad region from the Aleutian Islands and New Zealand eastward to the western tip of Africa. The data are provided at 0.05° latitude/longitude resolution in netCDF-4 format.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date May 19, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date May 19, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
Publisher NASA/MSFC/GHRC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/GLM/DATA301
Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 535e7201-0ce3-4539-919f-5eb2560f59d4
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Old Spatial {"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90},"CARTESIAN"
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 63c83ee532a54347c990c817b788ed3ccbeb42a871f2963ff3b4a84de2fca143
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2019-01-01/2024-12-31

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