NASA/CR-2014-218367 

Three Dimensional Lightning Launch 

Commit Criteria Visualization Tool 

William H. Bauman III 

ENSCO, Inc., Cocoa Beach, Florida 

NASA Applied Meteorology Unit, Kennedy Space Center, Florida 

May 2014 
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NASA/CR-2014-218367 

Three Dimensional Lightning Launch 

Commit Criteria Visualization Tool 

William H. Bauman III 

ENSCO, Inc., Cocoa Beach, Florida 

NASA Applied Meteorology Unit, Kennedy Space Center, Florida 

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

Kennedy Space Center 

Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899-0001 

May 2014 
Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Major Perry Sweat from the 45th Weather Squadron for his 

suggestion to consider FalconView Weather software that is under development at the Air Force 

Research Laboratory. The author also wishes to thank Dr. Ken Cummins from the NASA 

Lightning Advisory Panel and the University of Arizona for his suggestion to consider the NASA 

Marshall Spaceflight Center Real Time Mission Monitoring Software. 

Available from: 

NASA Center for AeroSpace Information 

7115 Standard Drive 

Hanover, MD 21076-1320 

443-757-5802 

This report is also available in electronic form at 

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/amu/
2 

Executive Summary 

Customer: NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) and Space Launch System (SLS) 

program 

Lightning occurrence too close to a NASA LSP or future SLS program launch vehicle in 

flight would have disastrous results. The sensitive electronics on the vehicle could be damaged 

to the point of causing an anomalous flight path and ultimate destruction of the vehicle and 

payload. 

According to 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC), a 

vehicle cannot launch if lightning is within 10 NM of its pre-determined flight path. The 45 WS 

Launch Weather Officers (LWOs) evaluate this LLCC for their launch customers to ensure the 

safety of the vehicle in flight. Currently, the LWOs conduct a subjective analysis of the distance 

between lightning and the flight path using data from different display systems. A 3-D display in 

which the lightning data and flight path are together would greatly reduce the ambiguity in 

evaluating this LLCC. It would give the LWOs and launch directors more confidence in whether 

a GO or NO GO for launch should be issued. When lightning appears close to the path, the 

LWOs likely err on the side of conservatism and deem the lightning to be within 10 NM. This 

would cause a costly delay or scrub. If the LWOs can determine with a strong level of certainty 

that the lightning is beyond 10 NM, launch availability would increase without compromising 

safety of the vehicle, payload or, in the future, astronauts. 

The AMU was tasked to conduct a market research of commercial, government, and open 

source software that might be able to ingest and display the 3-D lightning data from the KSC 

Lightning Mapping Array, the 45th Space Wing Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR), the 

National Weather Service in Melbourne WSR – 1988 Doppler, and the vehicle flight path data 

so that all can be visualized together. To accomplish this, the AMU conducted Internet searches 

for potential software candidates and interviewed software developers. 

None of the available off-the-shelf software had a 3-D capability that could display all of the 

data in a single visualization. The AMU determined there are two viable software packages that 

could satisfy the 45 WS requirement with further development and recommends the KSC 

Weather Office follow-up with both organizations to request development costs. 
3 

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 2

List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. 4

List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. 4

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5

2. Software Search.................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 Omni Software .............................................................................................................. 6

2.2 RTMM Software ........................................................................................................... 6

3. Data Formats ........................................................................................................................ 7

4. KSC Lightning Mapping Array ............................................................................................... 9

5. Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 9
4 

List of Figures 

Figure 1. Four-panel RTMM screen depicting (upper left): three aircraft with lightning strikes in 

magenta; (upper right): XChat discussion of Global Hawk waypoint timing; (lower 

left): aircraft altitude charts; (lower right): nadir camera view from the belly of the 

Global Hawk (Figure 3 in Goodman et al. 2011). ...................................................... 7

Figure 2. Plot of LMA points from 15 April 2013 in the KSC test network that was operating 

from fall 2012 to spring 2013. ................................................................................... 8

Figure 3. Depiction of anvil cloud from a thunderstorm west of KSC on 4 May 2006 in the 

GR2Analyst Volume Explorer. .................................................................................. 9

List of Tables 

Table 1. Summary of candidate software discovered from the Internet keyword search. ......... 6
5 

1. Introduction 

Lightning occurrence too close to a NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) or future Space 

Launch System (SLS) program launch vehicle in flight would have disastrous results. The 

sensitive electronics on the vehicle could be damaged to the point of causing an anomalous 

flight path and ultimate destruction of the vehicle and payload. 

According to 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC), a 

vehicle cannot launch if lightning is within 10 NM of its pre-determined flight path. The 45 WS 

Launch Weather Officers (LWOs) evaluate this LLCC for their launch customers to ensure the 

safety of the vehicle in flight. Currently, the LWOs conduct a subjective analysis of the distance 

between lightning and the flight path using data from different display systems. A 3-D display in 

which the lightning data and flight path are together would greatly reduce the ambiguity in 

evaluating this LLCC. It would give the LWOs and launch directors more confidence in whether 

a GO or NO GO for launch should be issued. When lightning appears close to the path, the 

LWOs likely err on the side of conservatism and deem the lightning to be within 10 NM. This 

would cause a costly delay or scrub. If the LWOs can determine with a strong level of certainty 

that the lightning is beyond 10 NM, launch availability would increase without compromising 

safety of the vehicle, payload or, in the future, astronauts. 

Initially, this task contained two goals: 1) develop a 3-D lightning event location algorithm 

that determines the probability that an event is within 10 NM of a launch vehicle flight path, and 

2) incorporate the algorithm into a 3-D graphical user interface (GUI) that will ingest and display 

lightning events from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) new Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) in 

relation to the launch vehicle flight path and display the probability of the event being within 10 

NM of the flight path. Meeting these two goals would provide more objectivity than the current 

analysis and would provide the 45 WS LWOs and range customers with a quantitative risk of 

lightning to the flight path. Bringing all of these elements together in one display would decrease 

the time used to make the analysis and increase the confidence in the analysis results. 

During the September 2013 AMU Tasking Meeting, the AMU customers decided this task 

needed to be reduced in scope and completed in phases due to the reduced funding of the 

AMU contract. Therefore, the AMU was tasked to conduct a market research of commercial, 

government, and open source software that might be able to ingest and display the 3-D lightning 

data from the KSC LMA, the 45th Space Wing (45 SW) Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR), the 

National Weather Service in Melbourne Weather Surveillance Radar – 1988 Doppler (WSR88D), and the vehicle flight path data so that all can be visualized together. To accomplish this, 

the AMU conducted Internet searches for potential software candidates and interviewed 

software developers. 

2. Software Search 

The AMU conducted the market research by using a keyword Internet search for software 

that could potentially ingest and display the data types. The results of this search yielded 

software in four categories from multiple sources as shown in Table 1. Upon completion of 

Internet searches, the AMU contacted software developers via e-mail or talked to them directly 

while attending the 93rd American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, 

Georgia, from 2–6 February 2014. They found that none of the candidate software could meet 

the data display requirement without some development. 

Based on current capability to visualize meteorological parameters and vehicle flight path, 

the two most likely candidate software packages include Omni®, developed and sold by Baron 

Services, Inc. (hereafter Baron), and the Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM), developed by 
6 

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), to track and monitor assets during Earth science 

research airborne field deployments (Goodman et al. 2011). 

Table 1. Summary of candidate software discovered from the Internet keyword search. 

Category Source Software Name 3-D Capable 

Commercial 

Baron Services, Inc. Omni Yes 

OmniWxTrac No 

Gibson Ridge 

Software, LLC GR2Analyst Yes 

AVS OpenViz Yes 

AVS Express Yes 

Impressum Ninjo Workstation No 

Ultra Electronics ProLogic Yes 

Weather Decision 

Technologies GIS Weather Services No 

Government 

NCAR NCAR 

Graphics/Vislab Yes 

NWS AWIPS Yes 

USAF FalconView Weather In development 

NASA Real Time Mission 

Monitor No 

Open Source Kitware ParaView Yes 

University Georgia Tech VGIS Yes 

2.1 Omni Software 

Baron states that Omni is “Capable of depicting multiple layered datasets from any available 

source simultaneously” and that “Omni enables full integration of meteorological observations, 

from radar and satellite imagery to live sensors, cameras, forecast modeling and much more.” 

Omni is also capable of displaying 3-D volumetric radar imagery, integrating almost any kind of 

native sensor format, and tracking mobile assets equipped with GPS-enabled devices. The 

AMU talked to Baron Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer Bob Dreisward at 

the AMS meeting about the requirements and he stated that Omni could possibly display the 

data but not without development. He recommended NASA contact him to request a quote for 

the development costs. 

2.2 RTMM Software 

The RTMM is described as “a situational awareness tool that integrates satellite, airborne 

and surface data sets; weather information; model and forecast outputs; and vehicle state data 

(e.g., aircraft navigation, satellite tracks and instrument field-of-views) for field experiment 

management” (Blakeslee et al. 2007). The AMU could not find any references to a 3-D version 

of RTMM but, in its current state, it is capable of displaying the required data types: WSR-88D 

reflectivity images, C-band weather radar reflectivities (e.g., the 45 SW WSR), multiple lightning 

strike networks including LMAs, and vehicle tracks (aircraft or vertical launch). The RTMM uses 

a Google Earth plug-in application programming interface (API) giving it an intuitive and familiar 
7 

user interface (Figure 1). Using the API allows users to run the RTMM application in a web 

browser instead of having to install the Google Earth standalone application on their computer. 

Figure 1. Four-panel RTMM screen depicting (upper left): three aircraft with lightning strikes 

in magenta; (upper right): XChat discussion of Global Hawk waypoint timing; (lower left): aircraft 

altitude charts; (lower right): nadir camera view from the belly of the Global Hawk (Figure 3 in 

Goodman et al. 2011). 

3. Data Formats 

The format of each data type must be known in order to determine if the software will be 

able to visualize the data. The AMU asked the KSC Weather Office for assistance acquiring the 

data format for the KSC LMA. They provided a contact, Mr. Bill Rison at the New Mexico 

Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech), who provided a sample output file from 

an LMA similar to the one being installed at KSC along with an explanation of the data format. 

The data are output as a compressed and zipped American Standard Code for Information 

Interchange (ASCII) text file. The ASCII file contains rows of LMA source data including time, 

latitude, longitude, altitude, goodness of fit, source power, and a mask indicating which of the 

LMA stations detected the source. Mr. Rison also provided a uniform resource locator (URL) for 

a New Mexico Tech server. The URL is http://lightning.nmt.edu/sitetestlma/ and it displays realtime and archived plots of LMA data as shown in Figure 2. 
8 

Figure 2. Plot of LMA points from 15 April 2013 in the KSC test network that was operating 

from fall 2012 to spring 2013. 

Knowing the LMA format and that the 45 WS and AMU already have GR2Analyst software, 

The AMU contacted Mr. Mike Gibson of Gibson Ridge Software to inquire whether GR2Analyst 

could ingest and display the LMA data into the software’s 3-D Volume Explorer. Mr. Gibson 

indicated that GR2Analyst uses slices of volumetric radar data instead of 3-D objects. He stated 

it would be difficult, but not impossible, to display 3-D objects such as LMA points and the 

vehicle track with the radar data, but there would be issues where the lightning and track data 

intersect with the radar reflectivity causing them to appear in front of or behind the reflectivity 

when they are really coincident with it. Figure 3 shows a 3-D depiction of anvil cloud from a 

thunderstorm west of KSC from the Melbourne WSR-88D radar generated by the AMU 

GR2Analyst software. 
9 

Figure 3. Depiction of anvil cloud from a thunderstorm west of KSC on 4 May 2006 in the 

GR2Analyst Volume Explorer. 

4. KSC Lightning Mapping Array 

At this time, the KSC LMA is still under construction and no data are available. Dr. Bauman 

was told by KSC Ground Processing Directorate personnel that once the LMA network is 

complete the data will terminate in the KSC Data Center and will not be provided to the 45 SW. 

The data will, therefore, not be available to populate a computer system in Range Weather 

Operations at CCAFS. It would be up the 45 SW to coordinate and fund the infrastructure to get 

the data to CCAFS. 

5. Recommendation 

The AMU recommends the NASA KSC Weather Office follow-up with Baron and 

NASA/MSFC to request more information on these two candidate software packages to 

determine the development costs needed to meet the full 3-D data display requirements 

required by the 45 WS LWOs. 

 
10 

References

Blakeslee, R., J. Hall, M. Goodman, P. Parker, L. Freudinger, and M. He, 2007: The Real Time 

Mission Monitor - A Situational Awareness Tool For Managing Experiment Assets. NASA 

Science Technology Conference 2007, 19-21 June 2007, College Park, MD. 

Goodman, M. H., R. Blakeslee, K. Regner, P. Meyer, and H. Conover, 2011: Coordinating 

Aircraft During NASA Airborne Science Field Campaigns. Earth Science Technology Forum, 

21-23 June 2011, Pasadena, CA. 

 
11 

List of Acronyms 

45 WS 45th Weather Squadron 

45 SW 45th Space Wing 

API Application Programming 

Interface 

AMU Applied Meteorology Unit 

ASCII American Standard Code for 

Information Interchange 

CCAFS Cape Canaveral Air Force 

Station 

KSC Kennedy Space Center 

LLCC Lightning launch Commit 

Criteria 

LMA Lightning Mapping Array 

LSP Launch Services Program 

LWO Launch Weather Officer 

MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center 

RTMM Real Time Mission Monitor 

URL Uniform Resource Locator 

WSR 45th Space Wing Weather 

Surveillance Radar 

WSR-88D Weather Surveillance Radar –

1988 Doppler 
12 

NOTICE 

Mention of a copyrighted, trademarked or proprietary product, service, or document does not 

constitute endorsement thereof by the author, ENSCO Inc., the AMU, the National Aeronautics 

and Space Administration, or the United States Government. Any such mention is solely for the 

purpose of fully informing the reader of the resources used to conduct the work reported herein.