Thunderstorm types and meteorological characteristics of upward lightning

Stucke, Isabell; Morgernstern, Deborah; Diendorfer, Gerhard; Mayr, Georg J.; Pichler, Hannes; Schulz, Wolfgang; Simon, Thorsten; Zeileis, Achim

doi:10.1109/iclp56858.2022.9942489

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Figure 3 reflects both the importance of convective precipitation and variables related to cloud physics such as particles in different phases, but also the importance of the wind field represented by the maximum larger‐scale vertical velocity, which is in line with (Stucke et al., 2022 ) and other studies showing the importance of wind for UL (e.g., Mostajabi et al., 2018 ; Pineda et al., 2019 ; Yuan et al., 2017 ).…”

Section: Methodological Procedures and Findings From The Instrumented...supporting

confidence: 84%

Upward Lightning at Wind Turbines: Risk Assessment From Larger‐Scale Meteorology

Stucke,

Morgenstern,

Diendorfer

et al. 2023

JGR Atmospheres

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Upward lightning (UL) has become a major threat to the growing number of wind turbines producing renewable electricity. It can be much more destructive than downward lightning due to the large charge transfer involved in the discharge process. Ground‐truth lightning current measurements indicate that less than 50% of UL could be detected by lightning location systems (LLS). UL is expected to be the dominant lightning type during the cold season. However, current standards for assessing the risk of lightning at wind turbines mainly consider summer lightning, which is derived from LLS. This study assesses the risk of LLS‐detectable and LLS‐undetectable UL at wind turbines using direct UL measurements at instrumented towers. These are linked to meteorological data using random forests. The meteorological drivers for the absence/occurrence of UL are found from these models. In a second step, the results of the tower‐trained models are extended to a larger study area (central and northern Germany). The tower‐trained models for LLS‐detectable lightning are independently verified at wind turbine sites in this area and found to reliably diagnose this type of UL. Risk maps based on cold season case study events show that high probabilities in the study area coincide with actual UL flashes. This lends credibility to the application of the model to all UL types, increasing both risk and affected areas.

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Section: Methodological Procedures and Findings From The Instrumented...supporting

confidence: 84%

Upward Lightning at Wind Turbines: Risk Assessment From Larger‐Scale Meteorology

Stucke,

Morgenstern,

Diendorfer

et al. 2023

JGR Atmospheres

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“…Another important group is the wind field, with the eastward component of the wind at cloud top and the total energy divergence. Stucke et al (2022) demonstrate that UL at the Gaisberg Tower most frequently occurs associated with increased amounts of particles and hydrometeors and enhanced wind field variables.…”

Section: Flash Types Of Upward Lightningmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Stucke et al. ( 2022 ) demonstrate that UL at the Gaisberg Tower most frequently occurs associated with increased amounts of particles and hydrometeors and enhanced wind field variables.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upward Lightning at the Gaisberg Tower: The Larger‐Scale Meteorological Influence on the Triggering Mode and Flash Type

et al. 2023

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Upward lightning (UL) initiated from the Earth surface extending toward the clouds is much rarer than downward lightning initiated within the clouds extending toward the ground. Nevertheless, UL might pose a much larger damage potential as it is capable of transferring large amounts of charge up to hundreds of coulombs within a comparably long period of time (e.g., Birkl et al., 2017;Diendorfer et al., 2015). Tall structures (on the order of 100 m) are preferred starting locations for UL (e.g., Rakov & Uman, 2003). Wind turbines typically exceed such heights and consequently lightning damages to them have gone up hand in hand with their ever-growing number in the quest for renewable energy sources (e.g.

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“…This supports our finding of the very diverse wind-field thunderstorm conditions. Stucke et al (2022) relate our two thunderstorm types as described in Morgenstern et al (2022a) to upward lightning at two alpine towers and find that most upward lightning occurs in wind-field thunderstorm conditions. In general, thunderstorm frequencies under different synoptic conditions are often described (e.g., Wapler and James, 2015;Enno et al, 2014;Bielec, 2001;Kolendowicz, 2006) and regional thunderstorm differences are often subject of classical climatologies as mentioned in the introduction.…”

Section: Comparability Of the Found Thunderstorm Typesmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Most of continental Europe experiences 20 − 40 thunderstorm days annually, but the mountain ranges in southern Europe have thunderstorm frequencies of > 60 thunderstorm days per year. High structures, such as wind turbines or radio towers increase the occurrence of lightning (March et al, 2016), especially in the cold season (Vogel et al, 2016;Pineda et al, 2018) so that lightning damage to infrastructure is evenly distributed over the year even though lightning occurrence in the surroundings has a strong annual cycle (Stucke et al, 2022). Helicopter-triggered lightning in the North Sea occurs very often in the cold season (Wilkinson et al, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Thunderstorm Types in Europe

Morgenstern

Stucke²,

Mayr³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. Lightning characteristics in all seasons are investigated across Europe because it is observed that lightning strikes to tall infrastructure have no or only a weak annual cycle whereas lightning in general has a pronounced annual cycle. Using cluster analysis on ERA5 reanalysis data and EUCLID lightning data, two major thunderstorm types are found: Wind-field thunderstorms characterized by increased wind speeds, strong updrafts, and high shear occurring mainly in winter. And mass-field thunderstorms characterized by increased mass-field variables such as large CAPE values, high dewpoint temperatures, and elevated isotherm heights, occurring mostly in summer. Several sub-types of these two main thunderstorm types exist. Using principal component analysis, four topographically distinct regions in Europe are identified that share similar thunderstorm characteristics: The mediterranean, alpine-central, continental, and coastal regions, respectively. Based on these results it is possible to differentiate lightning in different seasons without a static threshold or a seasonal criterion.

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Thunderstorm types and meteorological characteristics of upward lightning

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Upward Lightning at Wind Turbines: Risk Assessment From Larger‐Scale Meteorology

Upward Lightning at Wind Turbines: Risk Assessment From Larger‐Scale Meteorology

Upward Lightning at the Gaisberg Tower: The Larger‐Scale Meteorological Influence on the Triggering Mode and Flash Type

Thunderstorm Types in Europe

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