Global Occurrence and Chemical Impact of Stratospheric Blue Jets Modeled With WACCM4

Abstract

In this work we present the first parameterizations of the global occurrence rate and chemical influence of Blue Jets, a type of transient luminous event taking place in the stratospheric region above thunderclouds. These parameterizations are directly coupled with five different lightning parameterizations implemented in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM4). We have obtained a maximum Blue Jet global occurrence rate of about 0.9 BJ per minute. The geographical occurrence of Blue Jets is closely related to the chosen lightning parameterization. Some previously developed local chemical models of Blue Jets predicted an important influence onto the stratospheric concentration of N2O, NOx, and O3. We have used these results together with our global implementations of Blue Jets in WACCM4 to estimate their global chemical influence in the atmosphere. According to our results, Blue Jets can inject about 3.8 Tg N2O‐N/year and 0.07 Tg NO‐N/year near the stratosphere, where N2O‐N and NO‐N stand for the mass of nitrogen atoms in N2O and NO molecules, respectively. These production rates of N2O and NOx could have a direct impact on, for example, the acidity of rainwater or the greenhouse effect. We have found that Blue Jets could also slightly contribute to the depletion of stratospheric ozone. In particular, we have estimated that the maximum difference in the concentration of O3 at 30 km of altitude between simulations with and without Blue Jets can be about −5% in equatorial and polar regions.

Global Frequency and Geographical Distribution of Nighttime Streamer Corona Discharges (BLUEs) in Thunderclouds

“…atmospheric chemistry impact (Bozem et al, 2014;Gordillo-Vázquez & Pérez-Invernón, 2021;Minschwaner et al, 2008;Pérez-Invernón et al, 2019;Shlanta & Moore, 1972;Simek, 2002;Zahn et al, 2002) remain to be well understood. O by non-equilibrium electron-impact collisions (Gordillo-Vázquez et al, 2018).…”

Comparison of Six Lightning Parameterizations in CAM5 and the Impact on Global Atmospheric Chemistry

“…Moreover, global models do not simulate either the microphysics and chemical output of new types of transient atmospheric electrical phenomena such as Sprites (Franz et al, 1990), Blue Jets (Gordillo-Vázquez & Donkó, 2009;Wescott et al, 1995), Halos (Parra-Rojas et al, 2013) and Elves (Inan et al, 1997;Pérez-Invernón et al, 2018). The global chemical impact of Sprites (Arnone et al, 2014) and Blue Jets (Pérez-Invernón et al, 2019) has been recently explored with GCMs.…”

“…This progress has been possible due to the availability of lightning detection from space (Cecil et al, 2014;Christian et al, 2003) and satellite observations of global distribution 10.1029/2019EA000873 of NO 2 columns by instruments such as GOME Burrows et al (1999), SCIAMACHY (Beirle et al, 2010;Bovensmann et al, 1999), OMI (Levelt et al, 2006;Pickering et al, 2016) or GOME-2, (Miyazaki et al, 2017). Also important are the numerous airborne multi-instrument measurements of thunderstorms mainly carried out since the mid-1980s in regions of North America (PRE-STORM in 1985, Luke et al, 1992, TRACE-A in 1992, Pickering et al, 1996, DC3 in 2012Huntrieser et al, 2016aHuntrieser et al, , 2016bPollack et al, 2016), South America (GTE/ABLE in 1985, (Torres & Buchan, 1988), (Baehr et al, 2003), TROCCINOX in 2004, RELAMPAGO-CACTI in 2018-2019, (Nesbitt et al, 2017, and Africa (AMMA campaign in Redelsperger et al, 2006, where lightning activity is specially strong.…”

A parameterization of Long-Continuing-Current (LCC) lightning in the lightning submodel LNOX (version 3.0) of the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy, version 2.54)

“…However, the process of separation of electrical charges that produces lightning is highly influenced by dynamic and thermodynamic processes (Showalter, 1953). Therefore, lightning and TLE activity are parameterized in global atmospheric models using meteorological variables as proxies (e.g., Tost et al, 2007;Murray et al, 2012;Pérez-Invernón et al, 2019;Gordillo-Vázquez et al, 2019). In the same way, relating the occurrence of LCC-lightning activity to large scale meteorological parameters could be helpful to improve the parameterization of lightning-ignited fires in global climate models and to implement the occurrence of sprites.…”