Lightning data to help hurricane predictions.

• Position: Weather Balloons - Brief article

Researchers are exploring how long-range lightning data potentially can improve storm forecasting. 'Through the ingest of lightning and storm balloon data, our project aims to increase our ability to map water vapor and heat associated with condensation of water in hurricane storm clouds in the core of the storm. In the process, details of the initial storm circulation in the hurricane model will be improved," explains Steven Businger, chair of the Atmospheric Sciences Department at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

In future years, the way the lightning data are ingested into the hurricane model will be refined to provide a more-sophisticated and balanced approach that improves the way in which individual storm clouds evolve in the model. A number of poorly forecast recent hurricanes will be targeted as case studies to spur improvement in simulation and prediction.

Businger has been a pioneer in storm balloon development and suggests that floating storm...