The FORTE satellite was launched Aug. 1997 with instrumentation capable of making both Very High Frequency (VHF) and optical observations of lightning. In order to characterize the FORTE observations, the Los Alamos Sferic Array (LASA) began operation in 1998 as an array of five Very Low Frequency (VLF) electric field change meters in New Mexico to study thunderstorms in support of FORTE satellite-based lightning research. LASA/FORTE comparisons have been fruitful [Massey et al., 1998a]. To study a large number of coincident observations of ground based and FORTE observations of lightning, the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) has been used for FORTE comparisons [Jacobson et al., 2000]. One surprising result of the FORTE/NLDN comparison is a coincident event detection rate of only ~1% when FORTE is overhead the NLDN (personal comm., A. Jacobson). In order to understand the low FORTE/ NLDN rate of coincidence, further VLF/VHF comparisons are being undertaken.
This paper presents comparison between LASA and the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) in order to characterize the location accuracy of LASA. This paper also describes the preliminary comparison between LASA and the Kennedy Space Center Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) system. As of 1999, LASA and LDAR are co-located, and LDAR is a VHF system roughly similar to the VHF observations of FORTE.