Data & Code for Manuscript "Surface Potential Gradients and NEXRAD Radar Reflectivities Before the Onset of Lightning at the KSC-ER"

The lightning and surface potential gradient analyses presented in this work was done by the first author (SCH) of the related manuscript as part of his Master’s research at the University of Arizona, completed in 2000. Most of the source data from the LPLWS and LDAR systems were lost over the last two decades, so the only available records are PDF images (LPLWS) and figures in Microsoft Word (LDAR). The level-II NEXRAD radar data used in this study are available through the NOAA public S3 bucket on Amazon, and the relevant subset of data are included here. The "code" for "Isolated Thunderstorms" consists of an Excel spreadsheet (CaseAnalysis_KLC_final.xlsx) that includes the extracted parameters used in the tables in this manuscript, the MATLAB script used to produce Figures 8 and 9 (HandelFigsRotateFinal.m), the MATLAB code that calculates distance needed for Table 3 (efmCellDistances.m), and the MATLAB Measure Tool (and related figures) used to produce the electric field values in Table 5. Supporting data tables (two txt files) used by these MATLAB scripts are also included in this folder. There is no "code" for the "Horizontal Flash" analysis. For inquiries regarding the contents of this dataset, please contact the Corresponding Author listed in the README.txt file. Administrative inquiries (e.g., removal requests, trouble downloading, etc.) can be directed to [email protected]