Climatology of lightning activity in South China and its relationships to precipitation and convective available potential energy

Zheng, Dong; Zhang, Yijun; Meng, Qingquan; Chen, Luwen; Dan, Jianru

doi:10.1007/s00376-015-5124-5

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Zheng et al . (), however, found an inverse relation between lightning and rainfall in the Pearl River delta and Leizhou Peninsula in China. They noted land–offshore contrast (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…(, ) and Price and Federmesser () but contradicts with Zheng et al . (). Lal and Pawar () indicated that total rainfall has the highest correlation with lightning activity during pre‐monsoon ( r = 0.94) than monsoon season ( r = 0.53).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extensive studies were carried out in the past on monsoon‐dominated regions of Asia to understand spatio‐temporal variation and factors governing lightning using both ground‐based and satellite‐derived data. Factors studied include meteorological factors (Zheng et al ., ; Chate et al ., ; Saha et al ., ); latitudinal variation (Revadekar et al ., ); environmental pollution (Siingh et al ., ; Kumar et al ., ; Saha et al ., ); effect of ENSO (Yuan et al ., ); precipitation (Kodama et al ., ); and climate warming (Kandalgaonkar et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Dewan

Ongee

Rafiuddin

et al. 2017

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Satellite‐derived lightning data for 17 years (1998–2014) were used to evaluate the relation between environmental factors and lightning activity over the Bangladesh landmass. Time series convective available potential energy (CAPE) data were extracted from ERA‐40 reanalysis data while total and convective rainfalls were obtained from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's monthly products. In addition, the product of CAPE and precipitation was computed and used as an additional variable. Three timescales – monthly, seasonal and annual – were utilized to determine the influence of precipitation and CAPE on lightning activity. The results indicated that CAPE stands out as an important variable at all of these timescales for predicting the occurrence of lightning. The correlation coefficient (r) between CAPE and lightning activity was found to be 0.902 (monthly), 0.703 (pre‐monsoon), 0.550 (monsoon) and 0.702 (annual), respectively. Total rain showed strong positive correlation with lightning on monthly scale (r = 0.734) and in the pre‐monsoon season (r = 0.701). However, such relationship was moderate during monsoon (r = 0.455). In contrast, convective rain showed slightly higher correlation during monsoon (r = 0.587) compared with that of pre‐monsoon season (r = 0.532). Because of strong seasonality in the data, convective rain did not exhibit strong relationship on annual scale (r = 0.227). The product variable (e.g. CAPE × precipitation) showed significant correlation on monthly (r = 0.895) and seasonal scales (r = 0.818 during pre‐monsoon and 0.686 in monsoon) but its influence appears to diminish on a longer timescale (r = 0.375). Spatial maps of correlation coefficient revealed significant positive correlation along relatively drier northern parts of Bangladesh. As lightning‐related fatality is on the rise, this study, first of its kind, is expected to inform public policy and provide information necessary for effective management of this atmospheric phenomenon to save lives and property in Bangladesh.

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“…Zheng et al . (), however, found an inverse relation between lightning and rainfall in the Pearl River delta and Leizhou Peninsula in China. They noted land–offshore contrast (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Dewan

Ongee

Rafiuddin

et al. 2017

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The criteria used to determine whether the strikes belonged to the same CG lightning flash were as follows (also used in Yang et al (2015) and Zheng et al (2016)): the time interval between adjacent strikes was less than 0.5 s, and the horizontal distance was less than 10 km. It can provide the time, location, polarity, and intensity of a return strike.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of the two active stages of lightning activity in two hailstorms

Zheng

Wang

et al. 2016

J Meteorol Res

Self Cite

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Two hailstorms that occurred in Beijing and Tianjin, respectively, are investigated, based mainly on the total lightning data observed by the System d'Alerte Fondre par Interferometric Radioelecctrique (SAFIR3000), the cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning data of a CG lightning location system, and the echo data of a Doppler radar. Both hailstorms exhibited two lightning frequency peaks: the first was before the hailfall and the second was after the hailfall, with the second peak greater than the first. The dominant polarity of the CG lightning was positive in the stage around the first frequency peak, but changed to negative in the stage around the second frequency peak. The evolution of radar echoes and the height distribution of lightning radiation sources are explored, revealing that both hailstorms had stronger convection and the main positive charge occurred at mid levels during the stage around the first frequency peak. However, whilst the Beijing hailstorm experienced the enhancement of convection, with the main positive charge at upper levels around the second frequency peak, the Tianjin hailstorm generated its second frequency peak during the period when the convection kept weakening and the main positive charge dropped to mid-lower levels. Through evaluation of the radar parameters, we investigate the mechanisms responsible for the second stage of active lightning discharge. Furthermore, the lightning activity exhibited a close relationship with radar echo parameters and hailfall. Lightning jump signals were found before the hailfall and were associated with the change ratio of the 40-dBZ echo volume above the -15℃ level, which demonstrates the application value of lightning data in severe weather warning. Citation: Xu Shuang, Zheng Dong, Wang Yongqing, et al., 2016: Characteristics of the two active stages of lightning activity in two hailstorms.

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“…The relationships between lightning flash rate and thundercloud radar reflectivity structure characteristics, such as maximum echo top height (Ushio et al, 2001) and maximum radar reflectivity at different altitudes (Cecil et al, 2005;Pessi and Businger, 2009), have been studied. In addition, the relationship between lightning and precipitation (Petersen and Rutledge, 1998;Takayabu, 2006;Iordanidou et al, 2016;Zheng et al, 2016), ice-water content retrieved from radar reflectivity (Petersen et al, 2005;Deierling and Petersen, 2008), and ice scattering signatures (85 GHz and 37 GHz polarization-corrected temperature) (Toracinta et al, 2002) have also been studied. Based on these reported relationships between lightning and convective properties, a variety of lightning data assimilation techniques have been explored and applied in mesoscale forecast models, which have been shown to be effective in improving simulation results (Mansell et al, 2007;Fierro et al, 2013;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Characteristics of Lightning and Radar Echo Structure in Thunderstorms Based on the TRMM satellite

Yuan

Jiang

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Based on the 16-years Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite observational data, the convective characteristics of thunderstorms over different topographic regions, as well as their radar echo structural and lightning activity, are analyzed. The results reveal that thunderstorms over the Tibetan Plateau have weak lightning frequency and small horizontal scale, but their occurrence frequency is the largest, accounting for ~20% of total precipitation events, followed by 10% over the adjacent foothills to the east and hilly land in southern China, with the lowest occurrence frequency (~3%) over the ocean. The 30dBZ echo top height is a good indicator to predict the occurrence probability of lightning in convective storm, which is more concise and intuitive than the 20 and 40dBZ echo top heights. Integrating the ratio of convective rainfall to total rainfall and the three-dimensional radar echo structure features to identify thunderstorm life-cycle stages has been proved to be a useful method, and which can help us further explore and maximize the usage of the valuable convective event data from non-geostationary satellites. It is found that the development of dynamic process, which refers to radar echo vertical structure, precedes the lightning activity during the evolution of thunderstorms. Although both lightning activity and radar echo structure peaked at the mature stage, thunderstorms before reaching the mature stage are stronger in radar echo vertical structure while weaker in lightning activity, and vice versa after the mature stage. Even during the dissipating stage of thunderstorm, there still some lightning was observed.

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Climatology of lightning activity in South China and its relationships to precipitation and convective available potential energy

Cited by 24 publications

References 55 publications

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Characteristics of the two active stages of lightning activity in two hailstorms

Evolutionary Characteristics of Lightning and Radar Echo Structure in Thunderstorms Based on the TRMM satellite

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