4.2. Precipitation and lightning in mid-latitude cyclones
Since ISS LIS operates during the era of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission [Hou et al. , 2014;Skofronick-Jackson et al. , 2018], global observations of lightning and precipitation are being combined to expand upon related findings from TRMM in the tropics [Petersen and Rutledge , 2001;Liu et al. , 2012] and gain new insights of mid- and high-latitude storm systems. Coincident ISS LIS and GPM observations are being combined into a new lightning-enriched GPM-based Precipitation Feature (PF) dataset to facilitate these investigations. For example, this new dataset is being used to study the microphysical and dynamical response of the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones (TCs) [Gatlin et al. , 2019]. The changing thermodynamic structures of these cyclones are expected to manifest in the lightning and precipitation characteristics of these systems. ISS LIS is extremely important to this study since it enables inclusion of cyclones in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and thus provides a more global perspective on the extratropical transition process. The ISS LIS-enriched PF database dates to 2017, and the number of ISS and orbital GPM coincidences continue to increase with time, which should soon enable meaningful statistics on the convective characteristics of mid-latitude-transitioning TCs.