Monitoring Lightning From Space
In 1997, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite to study rainfall and associated atmospheric phenomena. The satellite carried a sensor to monitor the frequency and geographic distribution of lightning in Earth’s atmosphere. Data from the sensor revealed that Earth produces about 44 flashes of lightning per second on an annual basis, with a maximum of about 55 flashes per second during the boreal summer and a minimum of about 35 flashes per second in the austral summer.