Regional Differences in Tropical Lightning Distributions
Open Access
- 1 December 2000
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
- Vol. 39 (12) , 2231-2248
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2001)040<2231:rditld>2.0.co;2
Abstract
Observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)-based Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) are analyzed for variability between land and ocean, various geographic regions, and different (objectively defined) convective “regimes.” The bulk of the order-of-magnitude differences between land and ocean regional flash rates are accounted for by differences in storm spacing (density) and/or frequency of occurrence, rather than differences in storm instantaneous flash rates, which only vary by a factor of 2 on average. Regional variability in cell density and cell flash rates closely tracks differences in 85-GHz microwave brightness temperatures. Monotonic relationships are found with the gross moist stability of the tropical atmosphere, a large-scale “adjusted state” parameter. This result strongly suggests that it will be possible, using TRMM observations, to objectively test numerical or theoretical predicti... Abstract Observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)-based Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) are analyzed for variability between land and ocean, various geographic regions, and different (objectively defined) convective “regimes.” The bulk of the order-of-magnitude differences between land and ocean regional flash rates are accounted for by differences in storm spacing (density) and/or frequency of occurrence, rather than differences in storm instantaneous flash rates, which only vary by a factor of 2 on average. Regional variability in cell density and cell flash rates closely tracks differences in 85-GHz microwave brightness temperatures. Monotonic relationships are found with the gross moist stability of the tropical atmosphere, a large-scale “adjusted state” parameter. This result strongly suggests that it will be possible, using TRMM observations, to objectively test numerical or theoretical predicti...Keywords
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