Lightning Data
Lightning data are received at NCEP from Vaisala through the TNC, TNC2, and NOAAPORT feeds from the Telecommunications Operations Center. The data consist of both short-range(NLDN-National Lightning Detection Network) and long-range(LLDN-Long-range Lightning Detection Network) lightning data. Under an agreement between NOAA and Vaisala, both the data and NCEP lightning decoders are restricted to remain within NOAA. These data, along with the NCEP decoders, may not be redistributed at any time to entities outside of NOAA, nor to any other U.S government agency, any educational institution or research group, any foreign agency, or anyone in the general public.
The short-range lightning data are stored in the NCEP database as BUFR types/subtypes b007/xx001 and the long-range lightning data are stored as b007/xx002 and are being evaluated for assimilation into NCEP models and for verification purposes.
Lightning data is restricted in that it cannot be made available to anyone outside of NOAA.