Global lightning: Total, cloud and ground flash estimates

Mackerras, D.; Darveniza, M.; Orville, Richard E.; Williams, Earle; Goodman, Steven J.

doi:10.1029/98jd01461

Cited by 107 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…12), as would be expected for events produced by discharges occurring inside active thunderstorms. At VLF frequencies the return stroke of cloud-to-ground discharges is the dominant source of received sferics (Pierce, 1977), and thus should strongly dominate the lightning observations, even though there are ∼3.5 times more intracloud (IC) lightning flashes (sometimes simply termed "cloud flashes") than cloud-toground (CG) lightning flashes (Mackerras et al, 1998). None the less, at 10 kHz the radiation from IC flashes is ∼10% of those of CG flashes (Brook and Ogawa, 1977) and thus IC lightning may be detectable by VLF systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location accuracy of long distance VLF lightning locationnetwork

Rodger

Brundell²,

Dowden³

et al. 2004

Ann. Geophys.

129

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Abstract. An experimental VLF WorldWide Lightning Location (WWLL) network is being developed to provide realtime locations of cloud to ground lightning discharges occurring throughout the globe. This network has expanded from a limited number of stations in the Western Pacific to its current state of 11 stations, in most longitude sectors, with additional stations planned in the near future. As part of the initial testing phase of the WWLL the network has operated in a simple mode, sending the station trigger times into a central processing point rather than using the sferic Time of Group Arrival (TOGA). During this initial stage, a significant quantity of lightning location data has been collected, some of which is being applied to research questions. In this paper the operation of the WWLL network is described, and the location accuracy of the pre-TOGA WWLL network is characterised. This is performed by contrasting commercial lightning location data from an Australian network, Kattron, over 2 days in January 2002, with 4 WWLL stations covering the same region. It was found that there were 426 matched lightning events, corresponding to lightning discharges with large lightning return stroke peak currents (mean absolute peak current of ∼26 kA compared with ∼12 kA for all Kattron events). By considering the random errors in the difference locations between the matching lightning events, an appropriate Gaussian timing error for the WWLL network of receiving stations is determined, and hence an estimate for the global location errors for the existing 11-station network is found. The "worst-case" global location error for the existing network ranges spatially from 7.5-100 km, with the global median being 15 km, and the global mean 30 km. When the TOGA method is implemented, the station timing errors will decrease, allowing for an increase in the location accuracies. Hence, the location accuracy estimates determined in this paper will be very conservative for the future WWLL network employing the TOGA technique.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location accuracy of long distance VLF lightning locationnetwork

Rodger

Brundell²,

Dowden³

et al. 2004

Ann. Geophys.

129

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“…Christian et al (2003) gives a global annual total of about N = 1,387,584,000 flashes. Mackerras et al (1998) estimates a global ground flash fraction range of between 0.154-0.215, which has a midpoint m = 0.1845. Using the weighted means from Table 1 give a total annual lightning NOx of: mN(484.15) + (1-m)N(34.78) = 1.633E11 moles = 2.287 Tg(N).…”

Section: Global Lightning Noxmentioning

confidence: 99%

The NASA Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM): Application to air quality modeling

Koshak

Peterson

Pour‐Biazar

et al. 2014

Atmospheric Research

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“…One research topic is to study, from a descriptive point of view, the annual, seasonal and diurnal variability and the spatial distribution of flash densities for different geographical areas (Reap, 1986;Lopez & Holle, 1986;Baral & Mackerras, 1992;Orville, 1994;Hodanish et al, 1997;Hidayat & Masaru, 1998;MacGorman & Morgenstern, 1998;Mackerras et al,1998;Yair et al, 1998). Some of these works report statistical relationships between the number of flashes, the number of thunderdays and latitude (Pierce, 1970;Prentice & Mackerras, 1977;Mackerras, 1978;Andersson & Erikson, 1980;Mackerras et al,1998;Yair et al, 1998). It should be stressed that these studies have generally considered a very wide latitude range which includes geographical regions with very different meteorological characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological and geo‐orographical relationships with lightning activity in Castilla‐Leon (Spain)

Soriano

Pablo

Villoria

2001

Meteorological Applications

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Some meteorological and geo‐orographical factors related to cloud‐to‐ground flashes in Castilla‐Leon (Spain) are studied. The relationship between flash density and the number of days with thunderstorms (thunderdays) is analysed, and a clear dependence and geographical variability is found. It is also shown that flashes have an average delay of four hours with respect to the time of the beginning of convection. The effect on flashes of dry static instability and moisture content is analysed by classifying days into four types according to the average values of the 850–700 hPa temperature difference and the 850 hPa dew‐point temperature. A similar classification using the 700 hPa wind direction is used to analyse the effect of the mean‐level flow on flashes. The results suggest that the daily number of flashes is mainly affected by the moisture content. Finally, a relationship between the cloud‐to‐ground flash density and geo‐orographical factors (altitude, latitude and longitude) is deduced using multiple linear analysis. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society

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Global lightning: Total, cloud and ground flash estimates

Cited by 107 publications

References 28 publications

Location accuracy of long distance VLF lightning locationnetwork

Location accuracy of long distance VLF lightning locationnetwork

The NASA Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM): Application to air quality modeling

Meteorological and geo‐orographical relationships with lightning activity in Castilla‐Leon (Spain)

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