Influence of land cover on lightning and convective precipitation over the European continent

Abstract

The impact of land cover on lightning and convective precipitation in the summertime over Europe was analysed using five-year data. Lightning data were obtained with the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) at a 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution and the convective precipitation data were calculated by the NCEP/DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis at a ∼1.9° × 1.9° spatial resolution. Data concerning land cover were obtained from the Global Land Cover Facility, although the original 14 categories were grouped into seven categories (water, forest, shrubland, grassland, cropland, bare ground and urban). For all latitude ranges, forested areas tend to increase convective activity during the warm period of the year, and the general effect of shrubland areas is to suppress convective activity. The behaviour of convection in relation to grasslands and croplands depends on latitude. At low latitudes both vegetation types tend to increase convection during the summer. At high latitudes, grassland and cropland areas appear to be associated with the opposite effect in relation to convection: grass suppresses and crops enhance it. Finally, bare soil tends to decrease convective activity. These results seem to be related to the impact of vegetation on soil moisture and roughness. In general, vegetation areas associated with high soil moisture contents and high values in roughness length tend to enhance convective activity.

Clouds’ Microphysical Properties and Their Relationship with Lightning Activity in Northeast Brazil

“…However, the other regions are distinct from each other for the three parameters described (Figure 6c-e). Good relationships between lightning and CP were also reported for the European continent [97], for the global tropical region [98] and for China [16]. 0.000 T4 0.000 0.000 0.000 T1 T2 T3 T4 The IWP values (Figure 5b) were highest in the T4 sub-region, followed by th sub-region.…”

Spatial Pattern and Land Surface Features Associated with Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study

“…The second category is relatively new, and hence, not well researched. These studies evaluate the association of lightning with land surface properties (e.g., altitude, slope, soil type, land cover, roughness) (Kar and Liou 2019 ; Ershova and Punge 2019 ; Soriano et al 2019 ; Aranguren et al 2014 ; Vogt and Hodanish 2016 ; Galanaki et al 2015 ; García et al 2015 ; Bourscheidt et al 2009 ; Kotroni and Lagouvardos 2008 ; Kilinc and Beringer 2007 ).…”

“…Current climate warming due to widespread urbanisation, industrialisation and the associated land use and land cover (LULC) change, as well as the accompanying anthropogenic forcing, is believed to affect the planetary boundary layer (Soriano et al 2019 ; Pielke et al 2011 ). A strong heating contrast between differing land cover types can therefore occur.…”

“…For instance, elevation is shown to influence lightning in Colombia and the Mediterranean region (Aranguren et al 2014 ; Kotroni and Lagouvardos 2008 ) but such a relationship is absent in the Australian and Brazilian cases (Bourscheidt et al 2009 ; Kilinc and Beringer 2007 ). Likewise, the influence of vegetation seems to be dependent on the type (García et al 2015 ), roughness (Soriano et al 2019 ) and season (Kotroni and Lagouvardos 2008 ). A positive relationship between CG lightning and LULC is reported in Louisiana, which further shows that latent heat fluctuations have a more direct influence than sensible heat (Sokol and Rohli 2018 ).…”

Spatial analysis of atmospheric discharges in Lubelszczyzna in 2018

“…Investigations of atmospheric discharges in Europe focused on the impact of landforms and ground cover were conducted by Kotroni and Lagouvardos (2008) and Rivas Soriano et al (2019). Kotroni and Lagouvardos (2008) analysed the influence of land cover and landforms on the frequency of atmospheric discharges between June 2006 and May 2007 in the Mediterranean region.…”