About 50% of cloud-to-ground lightning events attach to ground in more than one location. Many times, single strokes also attach to ground in multiple locations. These "forked" strokes radiate very complex electromagnetic signatures that confuse large-scale lightning location systems, leading to unreported events. For critical assets that rely on these data for operational decisions, multiple ground contact strokes are a significant liability. SLS' Jupiter OLS, a zero-deadtime precision optical monitoring system, provides a definitive solution to this problem, detecting 100% of ground-attachments within the configurable field of view. The image above shows a forked stroke attaching to ground near Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center during an Artemis I launch attempt.
