Author Topic: LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images  (Read 2289 times)

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Offline miraculon

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LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images
« on: June 27, 2014, 08:38:30 AM »
I recently discovered a NWS page called "LAMP" that has convection and lightning forecasts. I was using the earlier version (some WxForum members have it on their websites), but they recommend migrating to LAMP.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/cnvltg.php




The older version http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tdl/radar/03h.htm



Is no longer supported according to NWS. The time stamp was stuck on 6/11/2014 for weeks, but they fixed it recently. I received this email from NWS indicating that users should migrate to LAMPS.

Quote
Dear users,

We believe the access issues that caused an outage to the MDL 0-3 hour lightning probability guidance at this site:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/radar/NE_probltg.gif

have been corrected, and the guidance is updating again.  Please let us know if you notice anything out of date.

Please be advised that the 0-3 hour products available at this site no longer have active support in the NWS and therefore are no longer being improved and may be discontinued in the future.  If they are to be discontinued, an official notification from the NWS would be disseminated.  In the meantime, a possible replacement would be the LAMP guidance of lightning and convection.  The LAMP guidance is on a 2.5km grid covering the CONUS, and provides for the event of at least one Cloud-to-Ground (CTG) lightning strike (called LAMP lightning guidance) and the event of at least one CTG lightning strike and/or radar reflectivity of at least 40 dBZ (called LAMP convection guidance) in a 20-km gridbox in a 2-hour period. 

The LAMP guidance can be found here:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/cnvltg.php

and more information can be found in the Technical Implementation Notice:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/docs/tin13-50lamp_cnvltgaab.htm

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the products above.

Thank you for your interest in MDL guidance products, and for notifying us about the outage to the 0-3 hour products.

National Weather Service
Office of Science & Technology
Meteorological Development Laboratory
Mesoscale Prediction Branch


Greg H.


Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline DaleReid

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Re: LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2014, 09:10:04 AM »
Thanks for sharing your find.

There are many useful or interesting things (for some) that others seem to ignore or not be aware of, despite being produced at taxpayers' dollars.

I was interested in receiving low earth orbiting satellite scans for decades, back when the best quality was poor, but interesting.

Now you can see the HRPT type of scan from many sources, but the folks at SSEC at UW-Madison, have a great site with pretty good coverage and a boon to those learning geography:

http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/

Click on one of the eight regions, then for best resolution check the 250 meter radio button.  I love looking at the various cloud formations and the land patterns, watching for ice-out on northern lakes, and just having fun with these images. 

Years ago I was contemplating spending big bucks to join the club of amateurs to make a steerable antenna and all the electronics and decoder boards to go with it to get pictures of just this area.  Now we can get the data (but not have the fun of building but also not the expense) with the convenience of a high speed internet connection.

Have fun.

Share resource links.

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Offline miraculon

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Re: LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2014, 05:04:24 PM »
Thanks for sharing your find.

There are many useful or interesting things (for some) that others seem to ignore or not be aware of, despite being produced at taxpayers' dollars.

I was interested in receiving low earth orbiting satellite scans for decades, back when the best quality was poor, but interesting.

Now you can see the HRPT type of scan from many sources, but the folks at SSEC at UW-Madison, have a great site with pretty good coverage and a boon to those learning geography:

http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/

Click on one of the eight regions, then for best resolution check the 250 meter radio button.  I love looking at the various cloud formations and the land patterns, watching for ice-out on northern lakes, and just having fun with these images. 

Years ago I was contemplating spending big bucks to join the club of amateurs to make a steerable antenna and all the electronics and decoder boards to go with it to get pictures of just this area.  Now we can get the data (but not have the fun of building but also not the expense) with the convenience of a high speed internet connection.

Have fun.

Share resource links.

Wow, that is great resolution. Another bookmark on this one!

Greg H


Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline ocala

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Re: LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2014, 08:41:47 PM »
That MODIS site is cool. Been using it for while.
I just wish you could get more then one pic a day. You know, like every 15 minutes. :-)
Now that would be a HUGE file to download but man what an animation that would be.
Imagine a well defined hurricane.
The blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll

Offline DaleReid

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    • Weather at Eau Claire, WI
Re: LAMP - Convection and Lightning Comparison Images
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2014, 08:57:02 PM »
Yeah, that is a problem.

These images on Modis are from a low orbit satellite, scanning side to side a few times a second as it passes over.  Some days reception is really bad and you see the gaps in the georectified image.

But the geostationary satellite which is way out there comparatively, can get images every few minutes, if not even more rapidly, but the resolution sucks.  And perched over the equator, their view of the higher latitudes is definitely squinty.

No solution yet, but some day maybe there will be a herd of low polar orbitors one right after the other sending the same image down.... As it is, I don't know if there are any 'spares' in orbit or the budget was so tight that any to be built and launched were mothballed.

A few years ago one of the GEOS Wx satellites failed and they had to move one out of the hurricane breeding ground to cover the rest of the country, and there was concern about another failure really putting predictions and monitoring at risk.

Still, one heck of a lot of fun.  Not as good as the LandSat resolution of about 80 meters, but free!

Has anyone looked at the EROS data site in South Dakota?  Really a lot of stuff on there too, including some strip images from the very first spy satellite series, the CORONA. 
ECWx.info
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ECWx.info/t/index.php