By Research Support Instruments (RSI)
Lockheed Martin (L/M) is now producing the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) for the GOES-R series of geostationary weather satellites. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center oversees this development effort and relies on RSI to review L/M’s work and to perform independent analyses. RSI has performed trade analyses to maximize the detection of true lightning flashes while minimizing false alarms due to random noise, sun glints, radiation, and background contrast modulated by spacecraft jitter. RSI has assisted in the optimization of the GLM’s baseline parameters, including the threshold levels and time constants in the onboard processor and the software filter architecture and algorithms in the ground processor. RSI has also analyzed hardware and operational requirements for ground-based lasers to improve the GLM’s nighttime lightning flash geo-location.
