Regional trends of lightning activity in the tropics and subtropics

Qie, Kai; Tian, Wenshou; Wang, Wuke; Wu, Xianghua; Yuan, Tie; Luo, Jiali; Zhang, Ruhua; Wang, Tao

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2020.104960

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Global lightning may experience a significant increase in a warming climate (Price & Rind, 1994; Reeve & Toumi, 1999; Williams, 2005). However, recent studies showed that lightning activity or thunder day decreased over the southeast North America, central South America, the Sahel, and eastern Australia (Lavigne et al., 2019; Qie et al., 2020), and increased over the Arctic, the South Asia, and the Amazon (Chandra et al., 2022; Chen et al., 2021; Holzworth et al., 2021; Qie et al., 2021; Saha et al., 2017). Romps et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significantly Increased Lightning Activity Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relation to Thunderstorm Genesis

Qie

Wei

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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As a long-distance discharge phenomenon in nature, lightning not only poses serious risks to human beings but causes wildfires as well, which in turn affect the evolution of species and ecosystems (He et al., 2022;Hessilt et al., 2022). Lightning is the only natural source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the troposphere which regulates the oxidation ability in the upper troposphere and modulates tropospheric chemistry (Brune et al., 2021;Mao et al., 2021).Lightning activity shows large spatial heterogeneity on the globe with several lightning chimney regions around the equator (

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significantly Increased Lightning Activity Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relation to Thunderstorm Genesis

Qie

Wei

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Here we use MLR to quantify the contribution of the Indian Ocean SST to the interannual variations of TCO over the TP during winter from 1980 to 2020. The forward stepwise selection is used to add possible predictors to the MLR model (Qie et al., 2021; Qie et al., 2020; L. Wang et al., 2017). First, the explained variance of each factor is examined and the impact factor that makes the largest contribution to the TCO variations is adopted.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the Indian Ocean SST on Wintertime Total Column Ozone Over the Tibetan Plateau

et al. 2023

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Using various observations and a chemistry‐climate model, this study investigates the impact of the Indian Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) on the wintertime total column ozone (TCO) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Our analysis reveals that increases in TCO over the TP are accompanied by anomalously high Indian Ocean SSTs, and vice versa. Further analysis reveals that high Indian Ocean SSTs are accompanied by a narrowing of the northern branch of the Hadley cell, and consequently, the subtropical westerly jet in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) tends to shift southward. The southward shift of subtropical westerly jet can lead to a descent of tropopause and higher lower‐stratospheric temperatures over the TP. The latter causes a descent of isentropic surfaces in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Rossby waves triggered by diabatic heating in the upper troposphere over the Indian Ocean can also lead to a descent of isentropic surfaces over the TP. On the other hand, local descending motions over the TP caused by the Gill Pattern circulation and enhanced Brewer‐Dobson circulation bring ozone‐rich air in the lower stratosphere downward. The descent of tropopause and isentropic surfaces and the downward transport of ozone lead to a downward shift of ozone profiles, and consequently, TCO increases over the TP. Based on multiple linear regression analysis, during 1996–2020 the Indian Ocean SST increase and the equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine decline dominate the wintertime TCO increase over the TP, which is partly offset by the TCO decline due to the TP warming.

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“…These are indeed key dynamical factors for developing deep convective structures, such as supercells, which commonly trigger severe thunderstorms and intense lightning activity. In the United States, recent past trends in lightning activity are spatially diverse and comprise significant uncertainties [28], but lightning is, in general, projected to increase under future warmer climates [29][30][31].…”

Section: Conclusion: Current and Future Global Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire from the Sky in the Anthropocene

Fernandes

Santos

Castedo‐Dorado

et al. 2021

Fire

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Lightning-caused fires (LCFs) and fire environments influenced by thunderstorms are increasingly implicated in extreme wildfire events around the world, with devastating consequences to society and the environment. However, the disaster potential inherent to LCFs is often neglected, especially where the fire regime is determined mostly by anthropogenic ignitions. Such disconnect between perceived risk and actual risk is illustrated with the Iberian Peninsula, where thunderstorm-driven wildfires are comparatively rare but have resulted in large-scale burning and considerable loss of human life. Even low LCF regions should embrace fire management strategies able to cope with LCFs.

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Regional trends of lightning activity in the tropics and subtropics

Cited by 21 publications

References 61 publications

Significantly Increased Lightning Activity Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relation to Thunderstorm Genesis

Significantly Increased Lightning Activity Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relation to Thunderstorm Genesis

Impact of the Indian Ocean SST on Wintertime Total Column Ozone Over the Tibetan Plateau

Fire from the Sky in the Anthropocene

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