Combined ISS and TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Annual Thunder Hour

This thunder hour dataset is combines lightning observations from both Lightning Imaging Sensors (LIS) that operated aboard the International Space Station (ISS) from 1 March 2017 to 16 November 2023 and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite from 1 January 1998 to 8 April 2015. The dataset represents a combined 24 years of observations. The data are provided at 0.05° latitude/longitude resolution for latitudes between 54.75ºS and 54.75ºN. A thunder hour is defined as an hour during which thunder can be heard from 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. Thunder hours are the average number of hours in a given year during which two or more LIS group centroids were observed within 15 km of each grid point. The Combined LIS annual thunder hour dataset is available as a single netCDF-4 file.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 03:57 (UTC)
Created June 3, 2026, 01:13 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id a5ca801f-1b8f-4293-af73-a98f0a080131
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/COMBLIS/ATH/DATA101
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:03Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/MSFC/GHRC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 5bf190c1a996388e165409bb6e77698e1dbe59c2f1a584967a0a850128a0c3c8
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"NorthBoundingCoordinate": 54.75, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -54.75, "WestBoundingCoordinate": -180, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180}]]
temporal 1998-01-01/2023-11-16
theme {"Earth Science"}