The group of ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) in Granada was created in October 2008 by Prof. F. J. Gordillo-Vázquez (co-PI of ASIM). The group is regularly supported by a number of national and international research projects and grants. For example, the group has taken part in several international scientific initiatives, including projects of the European Science Foundation (ESF), such as Thunderstorm effects on the atmosphere-ionosphere system (TEA-IS, 2011-2016); the EU's research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, notably the ITN network Science And Innovation with Thunderstorms (SAINT, 2017-2021); the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant project eLightning (2016-2022); and the recently awarded Horizon Europe doctoral network Gamma Radiation from the Atmosphere for Investigation and Learning (GRAIL, 2026 - 2030). 

The group is currently engaged in international scientific teams working on several space missions and projects. These include, for example, the Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM), a European Space Agency (ESA) launched in April 2018 and fully operational aboard the International Space Station (ISS). ASIM aims to investigate, among other phenomena, lightning, thundercloud corona discharges, various types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), and Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGFs). In addition, the group contributes to the analysis of data from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) onboard the NOAA / NASA geostationary satellites GOES-16 and GOES-17, which has been operational over the Americas since 2018. 

Finally, the group is involved in the scientific exploitation of lightning observations from the Lightning Imager (LI) onboard the EUMETSAT geostationary Meteosat Third Generation (MTG)-Imager 1 (I1) launched December 2022. We are also involved in the analysis and interpretation of data related to lightning activity and thunderstorm dynamics from the IRS and UVN instruments aboard the MTG-Sounder 1 (S1), launched in July 2025. The new MTG geostationary satellites provide coverage over Europe, Africa and parts of South America, including Brazil and extending to the Peruvian coastline at the far limb. In addition, the group was recently invited to participate in the ERC Advanced Grant project ExploriNg Lightning Initiation and Gamma-ray High-energy emission in Thunderstorm Environments (ENLIGHTEN), awarded in June 2025 to Prof. M. Marisaldi (U. Bergen, Norway). 

 Research Lines 

The group is currently active in eight research lines: (1) streamer corona discharges in thunderclouds; (2) wildfires triggered by lightning; (3) the application of Artifical Inteligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques applied to atmospheric electricity; (4) Regional and global modeling of lightning and in-cloud corona discharges; (5) lightning produced NOx, including satellite observations and modeling; (6) microscopic simulations of streamer systems in lightning, corona discharges, and strato-mesospheric Transient Luminous Events (TLEs); (7) spectroscopy of lightning and TLEs; and (8) air plasma kinetics and electrodynamics of mesospheric (sprites, halos, elves, …) and tropospheric (lightning and thundercloud streamer coronas) electrical discharges. Further details are provided in the "Research Lines" section of this website.