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

Abstract

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 (

Transient Luminous Events and Their Relationship to Lightning Strokes Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Comparison Regions

“…Figure 1 shows the TLEs observed by ISUAL over the whole TP where the elevation is higher than 3 km (in red isogram). It is noteworthy that 42 TLEs (39 elves, 2 sprits, and 1 halo) were recorded over the TP, although the convective systems and lightning in this area are generally weak (e.g., X. Qie et al., 2014; X. Qie et al., 2022a). Most of the events occurred over the southeast of the TP, with two additional events observed over the central area at Naqu (91.94°E, 32.32°N) and Xihai (91.93°E, 33.79°N), one over Qilian Mountain area (99.1°E, 38.23°N), one over the west (74.76°E, 37.98°N), and one over Rikaze (89.29°E, 29.1°N).…”

“…The maximum lightning flash density (∼0.5 flash/km 2 /year) appeared at the southeastern (30°N, 100°E) and central TP (X. Qie et al, 2022a), is smaller than that over the same latitude region in eastern China (more than 1 flash/km 2 /year). Especially, X.…”

“…It is noteworthy that 42 TLEs (39 elves, 2 sprits, and 1 halo) were recorded over the TP, although the convective systems and lightning in this area are generally weak (e.g., X. Qie et al, 2014;X. Qie et al, 2022a).…”

“…The relatively intense thunderstorms and strong lightning activities over the TP mostly occurred in its southeast and central region (e.g., J. Li et al, 2020;X. Qie et al, 2022a).…”

“…Strong thunderstorms rarely occur over the TP compared to east China (J. Li et al., 2020; X. Qie, et al., 2022b; Zheng & Zhang, 2021). The maximum lightning flash density (∼0.5 flash/km 2 /year) appeared at the southeastern (30°N, 100°E) and central TP (X. Qie et al., 2022a), is smaller than that over the same latitude region in eastern China (more than 1 flash/km 2 /year). Especially, X. Qie et al.…”