Tag: daile zhang

Fig. 3 Brazil local lightning safety day event.

Zhang Organized the 2024 International Lightning Safety Day Event

July 10, 2024

ESSIC/CISESS scientist Daile Zhang took the lead and organized the 2024 International Lightning Safety Day (ILSD) Event on June 28, 2024. The ILSD event serves as an annual virtual platform dedicated to the discussion of lightning safety strategies, educational initiatives, technological advancements, methodologies, progress, and challenges from around the world. With participants from over 25 countries spanning North and South Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe, this event aims to foster global collaboration in lightning safety.

Figure 1. Daile showing the RedditAMA info at ESSIC/CISESS

Zhang Holds Reddit “Ask Me Anything” for Lightning Safety Awareness Week

July 10, 2024

ESSIC/CISESS scientist, Daile Zhang, held a live Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) event for the Lightning Safety Awareness Week on June 24, 2024. The event was hosted by the UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.

Figure 1. LPSs installation at the St. Victor Mulabana Primary School. PHOTO: Daile Zhang

Zhang Visits Uganda to Help with Installation of Lightning Protection Systems

July 3, 2024

ESSIC/CISESS scientist, Daile Zhang, who also serves as a Board of Directors of an NGO – African Centres for Lightning and Electromagnetics Network (ACLENet) visited Uganda last week. She and the team helped install lightning protection systems (LPSs) at the St. Victor Mulabana Primary School in Kalangala district, an Island on the Lake Victoria. Uganda experiences more than two million lightning strikes per year. The installation will protect 400+ students, teachers, and the nearby community from these lightning strikes.

Zhang Presents Her New Book at the CTR Wilson Meeting

December 13, 2023

ESSIC/CISESS scientist Daile Zhang and her coauthor Ron Holle virtually presented their new
book–Flashes of Brilliance: The Science and Wonder of Arizona Lightning –at the CTR Wilson
meeting on November 16, 2023. They discussed the motivation of writing the book and
introduced the content of each chapter. The audiences were interested in creating
undergraduate level courses and materials based on the book.

The Lightning Team at the Spooky Science Expo. Left to right: Damian Joseph Figueroa, Guangyang Fang, Ashmita Pyne, Daile Zhang, and Joseph Patton

Lightning Team Outreach Event at the 8th Spooky Science Expo

October 27, 2023

The ESSIC/CISESS Lightning Team – Guangyang Fang, Joseph Patton, Daile Zhang, and two students Damian Joseph Figueroa and Ashmita Pyne – went to celebrate the 8th Spooky Science Expo in Alexandria, VA. This was the first time CISESS/ESSIC scientists participated in this event.

Figure: The International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensors 128 X 128-pixel array of (a) event count, (b) total event energy density, (c) mean event energy density, (d) pixel minimum energy density, (e) pixel maximum energy density, and (f) pixelwise 95% quantile energy density during March 2017–September 2020, computed separately for each pixel, indexed by CCD pixel numbers.

Evaluating Lightning Observations from Space

October 10, 2023

ESSIC/CISESS Scientists Daile Zhang, Scott Rudlosky (NOAA), and colleagues published a study that uses the well-documented Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Lightning Imaging Sensors (LIS) performance to determine if the International Space Station (ISS) LIS performs well enough to bridge the gap between TRMM LIS and the new generation of Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs).

No, rubber doesn't stop lightning, and your cell phones doesn't attract bolts from the blue. These are just some of the correctives a UMD expert applies to lightning safety myths. Illustrations by Valerie Morgan

Expert Strikes Down Myths on Avoiding Lightning Strikes

July 6, 2023

Summer brings to mind sunny days and relaxing vacations, but the season’s dark side makes it one of the busiest times of the year for a University of Maryland “fulminologist”—a scientist specializing in lightning research.

Building & Deploying Tools to Better Observe Lightning in the Washington D.C. Region & Beyond

July 6, 2023

In January 2022, ESSIC/CISESS Scientist Daile Zhang won a CISESS Seed Grant to evaluate NOAA’s Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on the GOES-16 and -17 Satellites and the upgraded Mid-Atlantic Lightning Mapping Array (MALMA) using a network of low-cost and innovative atmospheric electricity and lightning measurement tools to take lightning videos. Recently, the initial Seeds Grant period ended and Zhang reported her results.

Zhang Publishes Book on Arizona Lightning

April 6, 2023

ESSIC/CISESS Scientist Daile Zhang has published a new book titled Flashes of Brilliance: The Science and Wonder of Arizona Lightning with Springer.

[VIDEO] Zhang helps the Lake-Effect Electrification (LEE) Field Campaign

February 1, 2023

Daile Zhang helped the NSF-funded LEE field campaign in Oswego, NY this week. The LEE project aims to study the electrification mechanism of the lake effect snowstorms in the Great Lake area. This is the first time that scientists have conducted such an experiment. Daile helped launch the balloon and electric field mill in the field, testing and preparing for the electric field mill, and making connectors in the lab.