One option that was experimented with for viewing LightningCast data was to use an image overlay on to of visible satellite imagery. Here is an example.

The underlying image is GOES-E meso sector visible imagery (channel 2). The overlaid image is LightningCast East probability of 10 flashes.

To get the image to look like this, the following changes were made to the LightningCast image.

1) In “Edit colors”, fill everything up to about 3% with zero. This ensures that there is no overlay to areas where LightningCast probabilities are very low, and the underlying visible imagery shows through cleanly.

2) In “Imaging”, change the Alpha value to about 25%-30%, and select “Interpolate Image”. I also liked increasing the brightness from 50% to around 60%-65%.

The end result is a display that draws your eyes to the convection with the greatest lightning probabilities, without being as busy as the contours. You could easily overlay extra information over this image, such as GLM, ground-based lightning, or environmental parameters.

–Insolation