As soccer enthusiasts from around the globe made their way to World Cup matches and visited outdoor FIFA Fan Festival events in Atlanta, a lightning tracking system operated by the Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) was providing weather forecasters information that could help protect the fans.
 

The North Georgia Lightning Mapping Array (NGLMA) uses specialized detection equipment to generate detailed maps of the lightning that occurs in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Through a collaboration between GTRI and the National Weather Service (NWS), the array provided continuous lightning information to agencies responsible for visitor safety.
 

“The North Georgia Lightning Mapping Array is providing decision-support information to agencies responsible for protecting events in Atlanta related to the World Cup,” said Michael Peterson, director of the GTRI Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) that operates the array. “The system has been up and running and gave us excellent measurements of the thunderstorms that occurred in mid-June. It complements the other sources of weather information that the agencies have available.”

The array consists of nine instruments that detect both cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning flashes. The detection data is then reported to a central computer system that calculates the lightning location in three dimensions. The LMA provides a comprehensive view of lightning activity in the north Georgia area, allowing SSRC researchers to study lightning trends and attributes to better understand severe weather that may occur.
 

“Operations centers can use our real-time information to see if lightning is occurring in or approaching Atlanta Stadium (otherwise known as Mercedes-Benz Stadium) and other locations,” said Jessica Losego, a GTRI research scientist. “Since the stadium roof is closed, there’s not a lot of concern about lightning during a game for people in the stadium. The concern is for pre-game activities, such as people walking to the stadium, tailgating, and leaving the stadium.”
 

For many years, GTRI has shared information from its lightning sensor network and other weather instruments in real-time with the NWS to support the agency’s severe storm forecasting activities.
 

GTRI is expanding the NGLMA to include additional areas of coverage in Georgia. The array was originally fielded to conduct research into new techniques for predicting severe storms.
 

About the Severe Storms Research Center: The Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) is actively engaged in developing alternative methods of detecting and forecasting severe local storms and exploring improvements to existing storm prediction and sensor technology. The SSRC was established in 1999 after a task force formed by Georgia’s governor recommended creating an organization to coordinate the state’s severe weather forecasting, with funding from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the state of Georgia.
 

About GTRI: The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 3,000 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $964 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia USA