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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)
2024-10-01
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
Intellectual property rights
Classification
Unclassified
Spatial representation type
Vector
Metadata language
English
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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Begin date
1998-01-01T00:00:00
Unique resource identifier
EPSG:4258
Distribution format
  • Text/plain ( 1.0 )

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

RMI opendata 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
2024-10-01
Point of contact
  Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
http://www.meteo.be
 
 

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Spatial extent

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Keywords


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