GeoRayos Project: Lightning warning in Argentina

M. G. NICORA; JUAN LUCAS BALI; PABLO VASQUEZ; ELDO E AVILA; MARCOS SAUCEDO; LUCIANO VIDAL

Madrid

Conferencia; WMO TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON METEOROLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF OBSERVATION TECO-2016; 2016

W O R L D M E T E O R O L O G I C A L O R G A N I Z A T I O N

GeoRayos (http://georayos.citedef.gob.ar) is a Project to develop a forecast tool base on lightning observation to anticipate the occurrence of severe weather with simple infrastructure and small budget. It consists on the lightning activity detection related to thunderstorms and the use of a Nowcasting algorithm to link flash rate and severe weather at surface. Input data from GeoRayos are measurements based on lightning activity detected by the Word Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and atmospheric electric field measuring instruments (aka Ginkgos).The expanded body of knowledge on lightning activity along República Argentina, allowed us to determine the need for a tool to forecast severe weather in short time periods; thus, GeoRayos was developed, evaluated and now it is a tool in a daily basis at the National Meteorological Service (SMN).GeoRayos Project, since its very origin, it is thought of as a tool for developing countries since it is low cost and its design and implementation is not excessively complex. It relies on IT tools easily available since it runs on internet servers and the Ginkgos device can be built with accessible parts. It is particularly relevant to the observing systems in developing countries since it can easily become a lightning detection network