4.2. Precipitation and lightning in mid-latitude cyclones
Since ISS LIS operates during the era of the Global Precipitation
Measurement (GPM) mission [Hou et al. , 2014;Skofronick-Jackson et al. , 2018], global observations of
lightning and precipitation are being combined to expand upon related
findings from TRMM in the tropics [Petersen and Rutledge , 2001;Liu et al. , 2012] and gain new insights of mid- and
high-latitude storm systems. Coincident ISS LIS and GPM observations are
being combined into a new lightning-enriched GPM-based Precipitation
Feature (PF) dataset to facilitate these investigations. For example,
this new dataset is being used to study the microphysical and dynamical
response of the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones (TCs)
[Gatlin et al. , 2019]. The changing thermodynamic structures
of these cyclones are expected to manifest in the lightning and
precipitation characteristics of these systems. ISS LIS is extremely
important to this study since it enables inclusion of cyclones in the
Pacific and Indian Oceans, and thus provides a more global perspective
on the extratropical transition process. The ISS LIS-enriched PF
database dates to 2017, and the number of ISS and orbital GPM
coincidences continue to increase with time, which should soon enable
meaningful statistics on the convective characteristics of
mid-latitude-transitioning TCs.