Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs

The Campaign

The Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) was a field investigation between NASA and the University of Bergen. The main goals of ALOFT were to observe terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and gamma-ray glows in thunderstorms and to help validate observations from the International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS LIS) and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). ALOFT consisted of one deployment during July 2023 across Florida, Central America, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The NASA ER-2 aircraft was equipped with several sensors such as the Fly’s GLM Simulator (FEGS), Lightning Instrument Package (LIP), Electric Field Change Meter (EFCM), in Situ Thunderstorm Observer for Radiation Mechanism (iSTORM), and University of Bergen-Bismuth-Germanium-Oxide (UIB-BGO) to collect measurements of lightning and radiation within thunderstorms. ALOFT was funded through NASA’s Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics program.

Additional Notes

Repositories

• Unpublished