Endpoint: lightning/summary

To access Lightning, Lightning Summary, Lightning Threats, lightning mapping features, or historical lightning data, select our Lightning Add-On when building your Flex subscription or contact us to add it to your existing plan.
Lightning Flash data and mapping layers can be accessed from your Flex subscription.

The lighting/summary endpoint expands on the lightning API endpoint and provides an overall summary of recent lightning strikes or pulses across the globe. Example use cases include - but are not limited to - obtaining the total number of recent lightning strikes or pulses around the world or within a geographic area or obtaining the number of lightning strikes within the radius of a specified location. This endpoint can also provide polygons of areas with lightning activity included in the summary, which is helpful for plotting areas of concern on a map. Please contact our Accounts Team for more information.

Use our wizard to try out this endpoint

The lightning API endpoint has the following limitations:

  • Lighting strike/pulse information is available for the last 5 minutes.

Supported Actions

The following actions are supported with the lightning/summary endpoint:

:id Requesting data by using the :id action is used for returning data for a particular item that has an ID associated with it. This is the primary method for requesting general weather information for a single location (observations, forecasts, advisories, etc.) as the location's name or a zip code serves as the id. Other endpoints may expect a certain value for the ID, such as storm cells whose ID value is a combination of the radar site identifier and unique identifier assigned to every storm cell. Refer to an endpoint's detailed documentation for specific information regarding how to use the :id action.
closest The closest action will query the API for data that is closest to the requested place and return the results, if any, in order from closest to farthest. If no limit is provided in the request, then only the closest single result will be returned.

If your request does not return results, you may try setting or increasing the radius being used.

Supported Parameters

The following parameters are optional unless otherwise noted:

fields fields=:string Provides a comma separated list of values for the API to return. This parameter is often used to limit the amount of data returned. See Reducing Output.
filter filter=:string Predefined filters for limiting the results. The filter value can be a single, comma-delimited or a semicolon delimited string of filter names.
from from=:string Returns the results starting from the value specified. For best practices we recommend using the to parameter as well to define a specific time frame.

Supports a UNIX timestamp or a specific date string. Alternatively, common date formats supported by the PHP strtotime() function will be accepted; however, commas are not accepted.

Examples:
from=tomorrow
from=friday
from=1302883980
from=MM/DD/YYYY
from=YYYY/MM/DD
from=+2hours
from=2017-02-27 5:00 PM

The maximum from offset for this endpoint is -5minutes.
to to=:string Returns the results between now and the value specified. For best practices we recommend using the from parameter as well to define a specific time frame. When used in conjunction with the from parameter, the value of to will be relative to the value of from, not relative to the current time.

Supports a UNIX timestamp or a specific date string. Alternatively, common date formats supported by the PHP strtotime() function will be accepted; however, commas are not accepted.

Examples:
to=+6hours
to=+5days
to=1302883980
to=MM/DD/YYYY
to=YYYY/MM/DD
to=2017-02-27 5:00 PM

p p=:place Defines the location to query data for. Refer to the list of supported place value formats.
query query=:string Used to filter results based on certain fields in the data set. See Advanced Queries for more details.
radius radius=:distance:unit When requesting the closest results within a circle, the radius determines how far from the specified location to search. A valid unit value must be included in your radius value, e.g., "5mi", "10km", "25miles". If no unit is provided, your value is assumed to be in meters by default.

Most endpoints utilize a default radius of 50 miles, though some endpoints, such as lightning, may have tighter restrictions specified.
minradius minradius=:distance:unit When requesting the closest results within a circle, the minradius determines how far from the specified location to search to begin searching results. A valid unit value must be included in your minimum radius value, e.g., "5mi", "10km", or "25miles". If no unit is provided, your value is assumed to be in meters by default.
When combined with the radius parameter, donut style queries can be made for point data, such as lightning.

Supported Filters

The following filters can be passed to the filter parameter to reduce the results that are returned:

cg Filter based on cloud-to-ground strikes. This is the default if no filter or query provided.
ic Filter based on intracloud lightning pulses.
all Filter based on all lightning pulses, cloud-to-ground and intracloud.
negative Returns negative lightning strikes only.
positive Returns positive lightning strikes only.

Supported Query Properties

Use the following supported property keys when creating custom queries for your requests:

dt The date/time of the lightning pulse
type The type of lightning pulse:
cg = cloud-to-ground
ic = intracloud
peakamp The estimated peak amperage of the lightning pulse. Note that the polarity of the pulse is defined by the sign peak amp value. Negative has a peak amp value less than zero.
numsensors Query based on the number of sensors that detected the lightning

Examples

The /[:endpoint]/[:action]? portion within the query template below can be exchanged with any of the examples. Also, please note you will need to input your client credentials in the [ID] and [SECRET] fields which can be found under the Apps section of the members area.

https://api.aerisapi.com/[:endpoint]/[:action]?client_id=[ID]&client_secret=[SECRET]

Return a summary of all lightning strikes worldwide
/lightning/summary?

Return a summary of all cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a 20 mile radius of Atlanta, GA
/lightning/summary/atlanta,ga?radius=20miles&filter=cg&

Return a summary of all cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a 20 miles radius of Atlanta, GA that occurred within the last 5 minutes.
/lightning/summary/atlanta,ga?radius=20miles&filter=cg&from=-5minutes&to=now&

Response

The following is an example of what each object in the response will consist of. Depending on your requested action, the response may contain multiple instances of this object within an array.


{
    "success": true,
    "error": null,
    "response": [{
        "summary": {
            "range": {
                "count": 76,
                "fromTimestamp": 1528308484,
                "fromDateTimeISO": "2018-06-06T18:08:04+00:00",
                "toTimestamp": 1528308784,
                "toDateTimeISO": "2018-06-06T18:13:04+00:00",
                "maxTimestamp": 1528308765,
                "maxDateTimeISO": "2018-06-06T18:12:45+00:00",
                "minTimestamp": 1528308484,
                "minDateTimeISO": "2018-06-06T18:08:04+00:00"
            },
            "pulse": {
                "count": 76,
                "cg": 76,
                "ic": 0,
                "negative": 76,
                "positive": 0
            },
            "peakAmp": {
                "count": 76,
                "all": {
                    "min": 3905,
                    "max": 30174,
                    "avg": 8982
                },
                "positive": {
                    "min": null,
                    "max": null,
                    "avg": 0
                },
                "negative": {
                    "min": 3905,
                    "max": 30174,
                    "avg": 8982
                }
            },
            "icHeight": {
                "count": 76,
                "min": 0,
                "max": 0,
                "avg": 0
            },
            "numSensors": {
                "count": 76,
                "min": 5,
                "max": 19,
                "avg": 11
            }
        }
    }]
}
								

Response Properties

The following properties will be provided in every response object:

range (object) Object of the time range the summary covers
range.count (number) The total lightning pulses within the summary time range
range.fromTimestamp (number) Unix timestamp of the from parameter.
range.fromDateTimeISO (string) ISO 8601 date of the from parameter
range.toTimestamp (number) Unix timestamp of the to parameter.
range.toDateTimeISO (number) ISO 8601 date of the to parameter
range.minTimestamp (number) Unix timestamp of the first lightning pulse within the summary time range
range.minDateTimeISO (string) ISO 8601 date of the first lightning pulse within the summary time range
range.maxTimestamp (number) Unix timestamp of the last lightning pulse within the summary time range
range.maxDateTimeISO (number) ISO 8601 date of the last lightning pulse within the summary time range
pulse (object) Object of pulse information
pulse.count (number) The total number of lightning pulses within the summary time range
pulse.cg (number) The total number of cloud-to-ground strikes
pulse.ic (number) The total number of intracloud strikes
peakamp (object) Object of peak amperage information
peakamp.count (number) The total number of lightning pulses that included peak amp information
peakamp.min (number) The minimum peak amp value from all the lightning pulses within the summary
peakamp.max (number) The maximum peak amp value from all the lightning pulses within the summary
peakamp.avg (number) The average peak amp value from all the lightning pulses within the summary
icHeight (object) (DEPRECATED) Object of intracloud height information
icHeight.count (number) (DEPRECATED) The total number of lightning pulses within the summary time range
icHeight.min (number) (DEPRECATED) Lowest height in meters that was detected for an intracloud strike
icHeight.max (number) (DEPRECATED) Highest height in meters that was detected for an intracloud strike
icHeight.avg (number) (DEPRECATED) Average height in meters that was detected for an intracloud strike
numSensors (object) Object related to the number of sensors that detected lightning strikes
numSensors.count (number) Total number of pulses detected within the summary time range
numSensors.min (number) Minimum number of sensors that detected a single lightning strike
numSensors.max (number) Maximum number of sensors that detected a single lightning strike
numSensors.avg (number) Average number of sensors that detected a single lightning strike

Last modified: September 08, 2023