Statistical patterns in the location of natural lightning. Issue 2 (30th January 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zoghzoghy, F. G.; Cohen, M. B.; Said, R. K.; Inan, U. S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of geophysical research. Volume 118:Issue 2(2013:Feb.)
• Page Start: 787
• Page End: 796
• Publication Date: 2013-01-30
• Subjects: Atmospheric electricity -- lightning; lightning statistics -- geo‐location -- electric field recovery -- flash suppression; Atmospheric physics -- Periodicals; Geophysics -- Periodicals; 551.5
• DOI: 10.1002/jgrd.50107
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2169-897X

Abstract

Abstract : [1] Lightning discharges are nature's way of neutralizing the electrical buildup in thunderclouds. Thus, if an individual discharge destroys a substantial fraction of the cloud charge, the probability of a subsequent flash is reduced until the cloud charge separation rebuilds. The temporal pattern of lightning activity in a localized region may thus inherently be a proxy measure of the corresponding timescales for charge separation and electric field buildup processes. We present a statistical technique to bring out this effect (as well as the subsequent recovery) using lightning geo‐location data, in this case with data from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and from the GLD360 Network. We use this statistical method to show that a lightning flash can remove an appreciable fraction of the built up charge, affecting the neighboring lightning activity for tens of seconds within a ∼ 10 km radius. We find that our results correlate with timescales of electric field buildup in storms and suggest that the proposed statistical tool could be used to study the electrification of storms on a global scale. We find that this flash suppression effect is a strong function of flash type, flash polarity, cloud‐to‐ground flash multiplicity, the geographic location of lightning, and is proportional to NLDN model‐derived peak stroke current. We characterize the spatial and temporal extent of the suppression effect as a function of these parameters and discuss various applications of our findings. Key Points: Statistical tool used to measure cloud electrification on a global scale A discharge neutralizes an appreciable fraction of the cloud charge within 10 km Recovery takes ~30 sec and varies with multiplicity, polarity, type and intensity