File:GOES-16 Field Campaign Hunts Lightning (35099533140).jpg

English: Throughout the duration of the field campaign mission in April 2017, the NASA ER-2 plane’s progress is carefully tracked as it sweeps over multiple storms in the region. In this image, the plane can be seen in the bottom right corner passing over Atlanta, Georgia.

This phase of the field campaign focused on validating the satellite’s lightning mapper. By clearly measuring a lone, well-defined lighting flash with the plane’s instruments, the GOES-16 satellite’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), and various ground sensors, scientists can perform an important “one-to-one” comparison to hone in on the GLM’s detection threshold, or sensitivity, for light.

The GOES-16 Field Campaign, a two-month effort to calibrate and validate the Earth-viewing instruments on NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite, completed mission operations in May.

Credit: NOAA

Learn more about phase 2 of the field campaign at www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/hunting-lightning-day-goes-16...

Read a recap of phase 1 of the field campaign at www.goes-r.gov/mission/phaseOneComplete.html

An overview of the field campaign can be found at www.goes-r.gov/mission/fieldCampaignBegins.html