The Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) was an international collaboration between NASA and the University of Bergen, Norway, during July 2023. This campaign aimed to study terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and gamma-ray glows in thunderstorms and to validate observations from the International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS LIS) and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM).
ALOFT used NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft equipped with gamma-ray and lightning sensors, including the Fly's Eye GLM Simulator (FEGS), to collect measurements of radiation and lightning within thunderstorms over the Florida, Central America, and Caribbean region. Various airborne active and passive microwave instruments, to include X- and W-band Doppler radars and radiometers spanning 10-684 GHz, were used to sample convection overflown by the ER-2. ALOFT also used various ground-based lightning networks to complement the airborne instrumentation.
Ultimately, the campaign validated data for spaceborne lightning sensors and found that gamma-ray production within thunderstorms can be used as an indicator of thunderstorm evolution. Additional information can be found at Lang et al., 2025.
Cite the Collection
Østgaard, N. and T. Lang. 2025. Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) Campaign Collection [indicate subset used]. Data available online [https://earthdata.nasa.gov/centers/ghrc-daac] from the NASA EOSDIS Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A. doi:dx.doi.org/10.5067/ALOFT/DATA101.
For more information on citing data archived by NASA's Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC), see NASA's data use policy.
General Characteristics
| Projects | ALOFT | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Ground Stations, ER-2 | |
| Sensors/Instruments | AMPR, CFLMA, CRS, CoSSIR, EFCM, EXRAD, FEGS, Interferometer, iSTORM, LIP, LMA, UIB-BGO | |
| Parameters | Microwave brightness temperatures, precipitation, water vapor, cloud properties, radar reflectivity, doppler velocity, linear depolarization ratio, normalized radar cross-section estimates, lightning flash, lightning pulse, radiance, atmospheric electricity, electric field, ice clouds, water vapor profile, gamma rays, 3D lightning mapping, terrestrial gamma ray flashes, gamma ray glows, gamma ray spectrometer | |
| Processing level | 1A, 1B, 2, 3 | |
| Formats | ASCII, HDF5, netCDF-4 | |
| Location | Caribbean, Central America, Florida | |
| Spatial Resolution | Point, 161 m at surface at 20 km range with 75 m gate spacing, 300 m, 0.6-2.8 km footprint based on aircraft elevation, 10 km at surface and 2 km at cloud top at 15 km | |
| North Boundary | 35.959 | |
| South Boundary | 10.888 | |
| East Boundary | -80.404 | |
| West Boundary | -118.559 | |
| Temporal Resolution | 1 second < Daily | |
| Start and End Times | June 15, 2023 – July 31, 2023 | |
Member Datasets and More Information
New datasets/DOIs will be added as they are made available.
| Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR) |
| University of Bergen: Bismuth-Germanium Oxide detector (UIB-BGO) |
| Central Florida Lightning Mapping Array (CFLMA) |
| Cloud Radar System (CRS) |
| Configurable Scanning Submillimeter-wave Instrument/Radiometer (CoSSIR) |
| Electric Field Change Meter (EFCM) |
| ER-2 Navigation |
| ER-2 X-band Doppler Radar (EXRAD) |
| (EXRAD_SCAN) |
| Fly’s Eye GLM Simulator (FEGS) |
| Georgia Tech Low Frequency Radio Receivers |
| in Situ Thunderstorm Observer for Radiation Mechanism (iSTORM) |
| Kennedy Space Center Interferometer |
| Lightning Instrument Package (LIP) |