Gadgetory

the first images are in from NASA's new lightning mapper technology and they are pretty incredible the geostationary lightning mapper or GLM for short is a single channel near infrared optical transient detector that can detect the momentary changes in an optical scene indicating the presence of lightning according to the geostationary operational environmental satellite sweb site the Lightning mapper is onboard Noah's goes 16 satellite and is providing National Weather Service forecasters with new important data on lightning strikes in the Western Hemisphere this video footage of a lightning storm was taken over Texas on februari 14 2017 the green crosses Houston Texas while the green squiggly lines indicate the coastline on the Gulf of Mexico this lightning data can be used by weather forecasters to more quickly warn the public of increased lightning storms moving into an area as well as early warnings for flash floods and severe weather including tornadoes this weather data is very important for warning Mariners and aviators of dangerous weather conditions in the area you can read more about the geostationary lightning mapper in Amanda Kooser zar t'kul at cnet com you