Categories: LATEST NEWS

Lockheed Martin Team Delivers Second Lightning Tracker for NOAA Weather Satellite

Lockheed Martin Team Delivers Second Lightning Tracker for NOAA Weather Satellite

The second Geostationary Lightning Mapper undergoes final testing in Lockheed Martin’s Denver location, where technicians will integrate it with the GOES-S weather satellite. This GLM was delivered after a build and test program at the Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, where the team completed this second instrument significantly faster than the first build.

PALO ALTO, California, Jan.a, 2016 – Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) delivered the second Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument that will provide earlier alerts of severe storms and contribute to more accurate tornado warnings. The sensor will fly on the second next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, known as GOES-S, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Lockheed Martin team successfully completed assembly, integration, test and delivery of the second GLM instrument only 13 months after the first delivery.

“We reduced the build and test time of this complex instrument by 40 percent compared to the first unit,” said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin GLM program director. “Now that development is complete, we are able to reduce delivery time so the GOES program can serve our nation with more accurate weather information.”

The second Geostationary Lightning Mapper undergoes final testing in Lockheed Martin’s Denver location, where technicians will integrate it with the GOES-S weather satellite. This GLM was delivered after a build and test program at the Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, where the team completed this second instrument significantly faster than the first build.

A rapid increase of in-cloud lightning can precede severe weather on the ground. GLM tracks that activity and gives faster warning plus more precise location information versus current systems. It does this by tracking lightning flashes from geostationary orbit, with continuous coverage of the United States and most of the Western Hemisphere. The heart of the GLM instrument is a high-speed (500 frames per second), 1.8 megapixel focal plane, integrated with low-noise electronics and specialized optics to detect weak lightning signals, even against bright, sunlit cloud backgrounds. It was developed at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto.

GOES satellites are a key element in NOAA’s National Weather Service operations, providing a continuous stream of weather imagery and sounding data used to support weather forecasting, severe-storm tracking and meteorological research. The GOES program is managed and operated by NOAA, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages GLM instrument development. The team is preparing GLM for integration on the GOES-S spacecraft at Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that–with the addition of Sikorsky–employs approximately 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

Liat

Recent Posts

Molex Anticipates Steady Growth in High-Speed Connectivity in 2025, Driving Electronics Design Innovations Across Diverse Industry Sectors

• Increase in opportunities predicted for high-speed optical transceivers and miniaturized connectivity solutions to address…

2 days ago

Alphawave Semi Drives Innovation in Hyperscale AI Accelerators with Advanced I/O Chiplet for Rebellions Inc

Rebellions Selects Alphawave Semi's Multiprotocol Chiplet Solutions To Deliver Breakthrough Performance in Generative AI workloads…

2 days ago

Valeo & ROHM Semiconductor co-develop the next generation of power electronics

Valeo, a leading automotive technology company, and ROHM Semiconductor, a major semiconductor and electronic component…

2 days ago

New EiceDRIVER™ Power family of full-bridge transformer drivers for compact and cost-effective gate driver supplies

 Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) introduces the EiceDRIVER™ Power 2EP1xxR family of…

2 days ago

Unparalleled accuracy and longevity: Panasonic Industry presents brand new ultra-compact Air Quality Sensor

Next level monitoring precision of particulate matter, temperature, humidity, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs)…

2 days ago

Bitsight to Acquire Cyber Threat Intelligence Leader Cybersixgill to Help Enterprises to Preempt Cyber Attacks

Plans to Deliver Advanced Threat Intelligence within its Attack Surface and Third-Party Risk Solutions  Bitsight,…

4 days ago