An expanded view of lightning around the globe is coming closer for scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), thanks to a repurposed measuring instrument. UAH researchers have passed NASA qualifying inspections and shipped out a Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) in preparation for its planned March 2016 flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument, dubbed ISS LIS, was originally built as a flight spare for a LIS mission that launched in November 1997 aboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). That instrument is still in operation today.