Lockheed Martin will develop new lightning mapping tool for NOAA

NASA, representing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), announced in an official note that it had entrusted to Lockheed Martin Corp., the task of developing a lightning mapping tool. This project is part of the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program and represents a significant investment in the safety and effectiveness of weather observations from space.

The contract, worth approximately $297.1 million, involves the construction of two flight instruments and the possibility of adding two more. The commitment covers a period of 15 years, including 10 years of orbital operations and 5 years of in-orbit storage. Development activities will take place at Lockheed Martin facilities in Sunnyvale, California and Littleton, Colorado, as well as at NASA centers in Greenbelt, Maryland and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tool GeoXO Lightning Mapper will be crucial for locating, measuring and analyzing lightning. This will not only improve understanding and prediction of severe storms, but also provide vital data for hurricane intensity prediction, wildfire detection, precipitation estimation, and aviation hazard mitigation.

Here is the NOOA video of Hurricane IDA on August 29th

The information provided by the tool will be essential, especially in areas where other data sources are limited, such as oceans, mountainous and rural areas. Additionally, data will be available more frequently than from local radars, filling gaps in radar coverage. The GeoXO program, which follows the GOES-R series, is destined to revolutionize Earth observations from geostationary orbit. With its advanced capabilities, the program will support weather, ocean and climate operations in the United States, addressing major future environmental challenges.

The creation of the GeoXO Lightning Mapper sees a close collaboration between NASA and NOAA, who together supervise the development, launch, testing and operation of all satellites in the GeoXO program. NOAA funds and manages the program and data products, while NASA and commercial partners develop and build the instruments and satellites.