IT IS WIDELY RECOGNIZED THAT SPACEBORNE LIGHTNING OBSERVATIONS PROVIDE A WEALTH OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE DYNAMICAL AND MICROPHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CONVECTION. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL EXTEND THESE FUNDAMENTAL FINDINGS SEEKING TO FURTHER REFINE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LIGHTNING FLASH RATE STORM DYNAMICS MICROPHYSICS RAINFALL PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES AND WILL UTILIZE THESE RELATIONSHIPS TO IMPROVE THE REAL TIME USE OF LIGHTNING OBSERVATIONS FOR RAIN ESTIMATION. THIS PROPOSAL INCLUDES THREE MAJOR RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: 1) VALIDATE THE LIGHTNING FLASH RATE ESTIMATES FROM THE ISS LIGHTNING IMAGING SENSOR (ISS-LIS; LAUNCH IN DEC. 2016) AND GOES-R GLOBAL LIGHTNING MAPPER (GLM; LAUNCH IN NOV. 2016) AGAINST STATE-OF-THE-ART LIGHTNING MAPPING ARRAY (LMA) NETWORKS. LMAS HAVE VERY HIGH DETECTION EFFICIENCIES AND CONSEQUENTLY ARE ABLE TO PRODUCE IMPROVED LIGHTNING FLASH RATES IN ADDITION TO MAPPING LIGHTNING CHANNELS IN THREE DIMENSIONS. 2) IMPROVE GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE IR-BASED RAINFALL ESTIMATION BY COMBINING LIGHTNING INFORMATION FROM THE ISS-LIS AND GOES-R GLM WITH IMPROVED LIGHTNING-CLOUD-RAINFALL RELATIONSHIPS. WE WILL FIRST QUANTIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LIGHTNING CONVECTIVE RAIN VOLUME COLD CLOUD COVERAGE AND PRECIPITATION MICROPHYSICS FOR BOTH TROPICAL (INCLUDING TROPICAL CYCLONES TC) AND MID-LATITUDE CONVECTION (WARM SEASON) BASED ON OBSERVATIONS FROM TRMM THE FUTURE ISS-LIS AND THE FUTURE GLM. A LIGHTNING-ENHANCED IR RAINFALL ESTIMATION ALGORITHM WILL BE DEVELOPED BASED ON THESE PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND APPLIED TO THE GOES-R ADVANCED BASELINE IMAGER (ABI)/GLM DATASET. THE IMPROVED RAINFALL ESTIMATES BASED ON THIS RESEARCH WILL BE VALUABLE FOR OPERATIONAL APPLICATIONS AND NOWCASTING INCLUDING FLASH FLOODS. 3) DEVELOP A LIGHTNING PARAMETERIZATION SCHEME THAT IS SUITABLE FOR USE IN GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY MODELS THAT AIM TO SIMULATE GLOBAL TROPOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY. WE WILL FIRST REFINE THE ESTABLISHED CONTRIBUTIONS OF CONVECTIVE CLOUD-TOP HEIGHT CONVECTIVE PRECIPITATION ATMOSPHERIC INSTABILITY (CAPE) WARM CLOUD DEPTH AEROSOL CONCENTRATION VERTICAL WIND SHEAR AND MIDTROPOSPHERE HUMIDITY AS CONTROLS ON LIGHTNING VARIABILITY. A LIGHTNING PARAMETERIZATION SCHEME WILL BE DEVELOPED BASED ON MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS USING A COMBINATION OF THESE VARIABLES. PREVIOUS PARAMETERIZATIONS USED IN GLOBAL MODELS FOR EXAMPLE THOSE BASED IN CLOUD TOP HEIGHT SHOW LIMITED SKILLS IN REPRODUCING OBSERVED LIGHTNING PATTERNS. THE ADDITION OF ATMOSPHERIC THERMODYNAMICS DYNAMICS AND AEROSOL CONCENTRATION IN THE NEW LIGHTNING SCHEME WILL LEAD TO A MORE REALISTIC LIGHTNING PREDICTION IN GLOBAL MODELS THUS REDUCING THE UNCERTAINTY IN LIGHTNING-PRODUCED NOX PREDICTION AND ASSOCIATED CHEMISTRY. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL ADDRESS SUBELEMENT "2.3 LIGHTNING IMAGING SENSOR (LIS)" UNDER THE "A.23 WEATHER AND ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS" RESEARCH PROGRAM.