World's top minds in lightning science meet again
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Vaisala is the proud sponsor of the 20th International Lightning Detection Conference (ILDC). This conference was first held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1979 as a small gathering of the world’s top minds in lightning science. |
Over the years the ILDC conference has provided a forum for collaborative partnership opportunities in the meteorological world. University research projects have been generated from ideas produced at the conference. Lightning safety information and applications have grown as a public necessity. Collaborations such as the Vaisala National Lightning Detection Network® (NLDN) overlaid onto Sigmet products were developed for the ILDC. Global lightning network partnerships were created. Most importantly, the ILDC has served as an opportunity for focus groups and for global market application issues to be discussed when the world specialists gather in one location.
Many meetings occur both during the week and also the weeks surrounding the conferences. In addition, the collaboration of lightning customers and lightning science professionals during the conference, both for geographic and market applications, has significantly contributed to the greater understanding of lightning.
As meteorological applications of lightning data have grown, the first International Lightning Meteorology Conference (ILMC) was held in 2006. The ILMC was created due to the increasing size of the meteorological sessions at ILDC and the importance of the topic for Vaisala. Vaisala Thunderstorm believes this is a great forum to forge stronger relationships with the international meteorological community. Formerly a three-day workshop, the full 2008 ILDC/ILMC conference is now five days.
ILDC: 21 – 23 April 2008 in Tucson, Arizona, USA
The ILDC is now a bi-annual conference that provides a forum for presentations and discussions related to research and applications development in lightning detection technologies. ILDC is the premier forum for presentations and discussions related to research, emerging trends and case studies that contribute to a deeper understanding of lightning detection information in asset and facility protection, human safety, electric power distribution and transmission, forestry applications and telecommunications performance.
ILMC: 24 – 25 April 2008 in Tucson, Arizona, USA
The ILMC focuses on applications of lightning data related to thunderstorm nowcasting for the meteorological and aviation communities, oceanic extratropical and tropical cyclone nowcasting, and data assimilation into numerical weather prediction models. A meteorological perspective on the topics of lightning prediction and nowcasting the CG lightning threat is discussed. Meteorological uses of lightning detected by LF cloud-to-ground, VHF total lightning, and VLF long-range lightning networks and single-point sensors are also covered.
Vaisala - the lightning expert
Vaisala is a well-established authority in lightning and owns and operates the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network® (NLDN), and operates the Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN) for Environment Canada. The NLDN and CLDN data significantly contributes to human safety and cost-savings through improved damage response times and enhanced lightning mitigation designs.
The combined NLDN and CLDN network is the most accurate and reliable large-scale lightning detection network in the world. The data is used in applications such as weather forecasting, electric power utilities, air traffic control, insurance, power-sensitive manufacturing and processing operations, hazardous materials handling, forestry, golf and outdoor recreation, and shuttle and satellite launch facilities.
Further information:
www.vaisala.com/ildc
Author: Theresa Mary Fischer and Ronald L. Holle, Vaisala, USA