GLM Flash Points

Noted GLM flash points really help speed up the process of identifying where the cell of interest was located.  In the past, I would have to make a manual, on the fly “calculation” in my head where the actual cell was located.  If there was only one cell, that was easy by looking at radar.  When you get into the complex thunderstorm situations, that can be difficult and in the worse cases, it is too involved.  Seeing how the flash points seems to fix and/or surround the updraft, really helps speed this process up and give confidence to the forecaster which cell is the cell to be worried about.  This could also help with warning confidence.  The  image below shows an prominent example of this.

It is hard to see the flash points but there are 6 points surrounding the core of this small storm.  I chose this one to verify the positioning as it was on its own so it was easy to figure out which one it came from.  As such, seeing how close this is to the core, it makes it much easier to identify which FED “spike” is from which core.  

When looking at satellites with flash points, it also help confirm the location of the core as the ABI imagery is parallax corrected.

– Strato-Dragon

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