• geo.be Metadata Catalog
  •  
  •  
  •  

Belgian Lightning Location System (BELLS)

Total lightning observations, i.e., cloud-to-ground (CG) strokes and intra/inter-cloud (IC) pulses, in Belgium. BELLS data is given in Universal Time! (local time winter = UT +1; local time summer = UT + 2). Each record contains following fields:

1. Network type, 0 = LF, 1 = VHF-TOA, 2 = VHF-ITF, 3 = VLF

2. Year, 1970 to 2032.

3. Month, with January as 1 and December as 12.

4. Day of the month, 1 to 31.

5. Hour, 0 to 23.

6. Minute, 0 to 59.

7. Second, 0 to 60.

8. Nanosecond, 0 to 999999999.

9. Latitude of the calculated location in decimal degrees, to 4 decimal places, -90.0 to 90.0.

10. Longitude of the calculated location in decimal degrees, to 4 decimal places, -180.0 to 180.0.

11. Altitude in meters, -4950 to +60535. This field will be 0 if the altitude is not provided in the lightning data.

12. The altitude uncertainty in meters. This field will be 0 if the altitude uncertainty is not provided in the lightning data.

13. Estimated peak current in kiloamps, -9999 to 9999.

14. VHF Range normalized power, -9999.0 to 9999.0

15. Multiplicity for flash data (1 to 99) or 0 for strokes.

16. Cloud pulse count for the lightning record. This field will be -1 if the lightning did not contain the cloud pulse count attribute.

17. Number of sensors participating in the solution, 2 to 99.

18. Degrees of freedom when optimizing location, 0 to 99.

19. The error ellipse angle as a clockwise bearing from 0 degrees north, 0 to 180.0 degrees

20. The error ellipse semi-major axis length in kilometers, 0 to 50.0km.

21. The error ellipse semi-minor axis length in kilometers, 0 to 50.0km.

22. Chi-squared value from location optimization, 0 to 999.99

23. Rise time of the waveform in microseconds, 0 to 99.9

24. Peak-to-zero time of the waveform in microseconds, 0 to 999.9

25. Maximum rate-of-rise of the waveform in kA/usec (will be a negative rate if discharge is negative), -999.9 to 999.9

26. Cloud indicator, 1 if Cloud-to-cloud discharge, 0 for Cloud-to-ground

27. Angle indicator, 1 if sensor angle data used to compute position, 0 otherwise

28. Signal indicator, 1 if sensor signal data used to compute position, 0 otherwise

29. Timing indicator, 1 if sensor timing data used to compute position, 0 otherwise

30. Flash ID, a unique integer value identifying the flash grouping a stroke belongs to or 0 if not set.

This product is not publically available yet.

Simple

Date (Revision)
2025-09-08
Identifier
RMI-be / lightning
Status
On going
Point of contact
  Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Owner
  Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Atmospheric conditions
Keywords
  • federal government
  • observation
  • lightning
Spatial scope
  • National
Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
No limitations on public access
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Classification
Unclassified
Spatial representation type
Vector
Metadata language
English
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Begin date
1998-01-01T00:00:00
Unique resource identifier
EPSG:4258
Distribution format
  • Text/plain ( 1.0 )

OnLine resource
RMI open data portal ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )

RMI open data portal

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Other
dataset

Domain consistency

Name of measure
INSPIRE Conformity

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
No
Statement
BELLS is a low-frequency ground-based lightning network. The lightning sensors and central processor are based on Vaisala technology. Only lightning records that fulfill certain quality criteria, e.g., length of the semi-major axis, minimum number of sensors participating, are included.
File identifier
RMI_DATASET_LIGHTNING XML
Metadata language
English
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2025-09-08
Point of contact
  Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
http://www.meteo.be
 
 

Overviews

overview

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords


Provided by

logo
Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


  •  
  •  
  •