Researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, began studying lightning from space in 1997, with a sophisticated piece of flight hardware called a Lightning Imaging Sensor launched into space as part of NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The sensor had a three-year baseline mission and delivered data used to improve weather forecasts. It continues to operate successfully aboard the TRMM satellite today. Now these scientists are going to launch a second lightning sensor to space aboard a SpaceX rocket, this time to the International Space Station. The flight is scheduled for early 2016. Once mounted to ISS, the lightning sensor will have at least a two-year baseline mission.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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