Lightning Strikes within Aeris Maps

July 27

Lightning strikes are a common occurrence this time of year, leading to injuries and damage within the US and globally. Our Aeris Maps Platform (AMP) offers a lightning strike density layer, which highlights clusters of frequent lightning activity. While visualizing clusters and density is useful for getting a sense of general lightning activity, many users have requested the ability to plot individual strikes. With our new Lightning Strikes layer in AMP, now you can!

As a value-added reseller of Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, we are announcing two new lightning strike layers within AMP. These new layers display lighting strikes over the past 5 to 15 minutes and are global. Best of all, these layers are already included as a standard option with all AMP Premium subscriptions!

Lightning Strikes – Past 15 minutes

The new lightning-strikes layer displays lighting strikes that have occurred over the past 15 minutes, fading from white (latest strikes) to gray (oldest strikes). The layer is updated every five minutes. For instance, you want to display lightning strikes around Minneapolis for the past 15 minutes:

http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strikes,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

1	http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strikes,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

Lightning strikes over 15 minutes

Lightning Strikes – Past 5 minutes

If you would rather display near real-time lightning activity instead of the past 15 minutes, the lightning-strikes-5m layer displays the strikes over the past 5 minutes and is updated every 5 minutes. The following is the same 15-minute example above but updated to only display the most recent strikes over the past 5 minutes:

http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strikes-5m,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

1	http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strikes-5m,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

Lightning strikes over 5 minutes

Lighting Strikes within the Map Builder

As with all of our supported map layers, you can start utilizing the lightning strike layers today using our Map Builder tool within your account. The Lighting Strikes layer is available under the Severe category. Once you add the layer to your map, click the edit icon to switch between the 5 and 15-minute options:

lightning-mapbuilder

Lightning Strikes on an Interactive Map

As with any AMP layer, they can be used on static maps or within interactive maps. The following snippet provides an example of using AerisJS to add lightning strikes to an interactive map:

<div id="map-canvas"></div>

<!-- Leaflet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/leaflet/0.7.2/leaflet.css"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/leaflet/0.7.2/leaflet.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.aerisjs.com/aeris.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.3/jquery.min.js"></script>

<style>
#map-canvas {
width: 800px;
height: 600px;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Configure Aeris API keys
aeris.config.set({
 apiId: '[client_id]',
 apiSecret: '[client_secret]'
});

// Create the map, where 'map-canvas' is the id of an HTML element.
var map = new aeris.maps.Map('map-canvas', {
 zoom: 4,
 center: [38.5482, -96.3281],
 baseLayer: new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({
 tileType: 'flat-dk',
 zIndex: 1
 })
});

// Create 'lightning-strikes' layer
new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({
 tileType: 'lightning-strikes',
 zIndex: 7,
 map: map
});

// Create 'admin-cities' layer
new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({
 tileType: 'admin-cities-dk',
 zIndex: 8,
 map: map
});
</script>

<style>

#map-canvas {

width: 800px;

height: 600px;

}

</style>

// Configure Aeris API keys

aeris.config.set({

apiId: '[client_id]',

apiSecret: '[client_secret]'

});

// Create the map, where 'map-canvas' is the id of an HTML element.

var map = new aeris.maps.Map('map-canvas', {

zoom: 4,

center: [38.5482, -96.3281],

baseLayer: new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({

tileType: 'flat-dk',

zIndex: 1

})

});

// Create 'lightning-strikes' layer

new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({

tileType: 'lightning-strikes',

zIndex: 7,

map: map

});

// Create 'admin-cities' layer

new aeris.maps.layers.AerisTile({

tileType: 'admin-cities-dk',

zIndex: 8,

map: map

});

</script>

Combining Lightning Strikes with other Layers

Try combining the lightning strikes layers with other layers, such as radar or the lightning strikes density for some unique visualizations:

http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strike-density,lightning-strikes,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

1	http://maps.aerisapi.com/[client_id]_[client_key]/flat-dk,water-depth,lightning-strike-density,lightning-strikes,admin-cities-dk/700x400/minneapolis,mn,6/current.jpg

Lightning strikes overlaid on Lighting Strike Density

Start using the lightning layers today with your AMP premium account or the AMP free developer trial!

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Posted by Lee Huffman at 1:09 pm