Update to the Lightning Probability Forecast Equations at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FloridaThis conference presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May- September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.
Document ID
20120003464
Acquisition Source
Kennedy Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Lambert, Winifred (ENSCO, Inc. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Roeder, William (Weather Squadron (45th) Patrick AFB, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
November 29, 2007
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
KSC-2007-237
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Lightning Meteorology Conference