Grand Challenge Purpose
Development of a holistic physical model for lightning is a grand challenge that relies on linking meteorological, chemical, plasma, optical, and radio process models together into a system that can handle physics on scales from millimeters to hundreds of kilometers.
Gathering and sustaining a community is needed to act as a steward of a roadmap that guides development of the model. Periodic review of the roadmap through workshops and gatherings at professional meetings will document the state of the science, enumerate deficiencies and paths forward for improving current models, and define a strategy for linking together modular model components into an end-to-end system.
Lightning Modeling Roadmap
As a result of the first workshop in 2024, the first version of the roadmap was developed. It outlines 5 years of effort and a technical plan that sets the course for improvements. The model and its sub-components will be open, developed in public for the community.
Roadmap versions
Please cite the roadmap as: Bruning, E. C., A. Back, S. A. Behnke, S. Goodman, C. Hogg, T. Lang, and J. Tilles, 2024: A roadmap for a lightning modeling grand challenge, v.1.0.0. Tech. rep. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.14624043.
- 1.0.0 — 28 October 2024
Upcoming Meetings
2025 Lightning Modeling Workshop
The meeting will be held at the TTU International Cultural Center (map). Parking is free at the venue, in lots both north and south of the building. Enter through the North or South entrances, which are each under a breezeway.
Registration: Registration is now open for this year's workshop! The workshop is free to attend, and will also be available online. We are grateful to the U.S. National Science Foundation for their support of the workshop's venue, working lunches, and student travel.
The purpose of the 2025 hybrid workshop is to (1) provide a venue to foster community discussion of the roadmap; (2) coordinate the efforts of the lightning physics and meteorology community to review scientific hurdles to progress and discuss solutions, updating the roadmap document; (3) work together in a focused way on pragmatic implementation plans and identification of resources needed to engineer a concrete, interconnected lightning model.
The 2025 agenda will follow a similar format to the 2024 workshop, but welcomes a much larger audience, including students. The workshop will begin with lunch at 11:30 am on 1 April, and the first formal session at 12:30 pm. It will conclude at noon on 3 April. A nearly complete agenda is now available.
Professional conduct during the meeting is expected. Please review the code of conduct, where you will also find a list of contacts should concerns arise.
Zoom and Google Meet links for online participants are now available here. Note the change to Google Meet for the Wednesday online breakouts
Shuttle van transport will run each morning. One van will pick up at the Staybridge. Another van will pick up at Hyatt Place, followed by the Holiday Inn Express. Please catch the earliest possible van since we can only carry 12 per trip.
| Morning Pickup | Hyatt Place (Van 1) | Holiday Inn Express (Van 1) | Staybridge (Van 2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 1 Apr | 10:30, 10:50, 11:15 | 10:35, 10:55, 11:20 | 10:30, 10:50, 11:15 |
| Wed 2 Apr | 8:00, 8:20, 8:45 | 8:05, 8:25, 8:50 | 8:00, 8:20, 8:45 |
| Thu 3 Apr | 8:00, 8:20, 8:45 | 8:05, 8:25, 8:50 | 8:00, 8:20, 8:45 |
Return shuttles will be provided after the meeting ends each day, to dinner on Tuesday, and to a lunch area and the Reese tour on Thursday. We encourage those with rental cars to invite others to join them to speed up end-of-day operations.
The conference hotels are as follows. Room blocks are now closed.
Field site tour after lunch on Thu 3 Apr, a tour of the TTU field site at Reese Center Bldg. 250(map) will take place. Shuttle vans will be used to transport participants who do not have a car; parking is free at Reese. Kelcy Brunner and several TTU grad students will facilitate.
Implentation planning and code sprint: The plenary meeting room will be available (with tables) after lunch on Thu 3 Apr for those who prefer to visit will colleagues to begin practical implementation work on the lightning model. Online participants are welcome as well. Eric Bruning will be present to facilitiate.
Eating near the TTU campus: The area immediately east of TTU along University Ave, near the football stadium, has a variety of eating locations, among other clusters of restaurants both near campus and across the city.
First Lightning Modeling Workshop
12:30 pm 1 April — 12:00 pm 3 April 2024, Albuquerque NM
Hosted by Sandia National Lab at the Marriott Uptown in Albuquerque, NM
The schedule, presentations, and summary reports from the 2024 workshop are available on the archived workshop webpage.