Development of a High-Frame-Rate CCD for Lightning Mapping Imager on FY-4

Abstract

A high-frame-rate charge-coupled device (CCD) capable of operating at 500 frames per second (fps) was designed and prototyped. It has a 400 × 300 split frame transfer CCD area array with 26 μm × 26 μm photosensitive elements and 420 ke⁻ full well capacity. The device was originally developed for the Lightning Mapping Imager (LMI) on China’s latest and most powerful weather satellite FengYun-4 (FY-4). It has a total area array of 408 (H) × 304 (V) with dark elements, where eight outputs are settled on two sides of the device. The active photosensitive area is about 11.3 mm × 11.3 mm. According to its feature of high dynamic range and 2 ms frame period (which nearly equals to the duration of a single lightning event), the Lightning Mapping Imager can map total lightning activity on the Chinese and surrounding territory continuously day and night. This will facilitate forecasting severe thunderstorms and typhoon activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency.