Comparative study of lightning climatology and the role of meteorological parameters over the Himalayan region

Damase, Narayan Prasad; Banik, Trisanu; Paul, Bapan; Saha, Kumarjit; Sharma, Shailesh; De, B. K.; Guha, Anirban

doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2020.105527

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The ICON-CLM simulations indicated the Western Himalayas and the Brahmaputra Valley in the Eastern Himalayan range as lightning hotspots. Seasonal analysis showed peak lightning activity in the Western Himalayas during July caused by incoming moisture from the Arabian Sea through the northwestern monsoon branch, which gets uplifted by the westerlies and orography of the Himalayas [45,48]. In the Eastern Himalayan region, lightning peaks during the pre-monsoon month, caused by low-level atmospheric heating and incoming moisture from the Bay of Bengal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Lightning Activity in the Third Pole Region: Performance of a km-Scale ICON-CLM Simulation

Singh,

Ahrens

2023

Atmosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Third Pole region, especially the Himalayas, is a lightning hotspot. Predicting lightning activity in this region is difficult due to the complex monsoon and westerly circulations, as well as the complex orography. Km-scale simulations can explicitly, without parameterization, tackle deep convective phenomena. A year-long (October 2019–September 2020) ICON-CLM simulation was performed with a km-scale horizontal grid spacing of 3.3 km to assess the region’s lightning activity and evaluate the model ICON-CLM. The simulated lightning potential index (LPI) was compared against the lightning proxy CAPE × PREC (CP) derived from ICON-CLM and reanalysis ERA5. In addition, the LPI was evaluated against the TRMM lightning climatology and observed flashes from the International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS-LIS). The LPI reproduced the major spatial, seasonal, and diurnal features of lightning activity as represented in the TRMM climatology. In contrast, the CP from both ICON-CLM and ERA5 performed less well regarding the location of events and the diurnal features. Taking the mean values of the LPI and CP of all the grids within 90 km × 90 km around the ISS-LIS detected lightning event, we found that over 80% of lightning events were recorded using the ICON-CLM simulation. Analysis of individual cases showed that the LPI predicted localization of lightning events better, but flash counts were slightly lower than the CP. Therefore, the combined use of ICON-CLM’s simulated LPI and CP can be a valuable predictor for lightning events over the Third Pole region.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Lightning Activity in the Third Pole Region: Performance of a km-Scale ICON-CLM Simulation

Singh,

Ahrens

2023

Atmosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The positive trend in the CAPE over the northwestern parts of India indicates increasing atmospheric instability and an increase in the local lightning activity. Damase et al (2021) explored the dependence of lightning flash density on monthly mean CAPE, surface air temperature and specific humidity over the Himalayan region. Increased greenhouse gas concentration and the urban heat island effect induce the warming of the earth's surface through the differences in albedo, roughness, heat and moisture flux exchange of the land surface.…”

Section: Role Of Land Use/land Cover On Lightning Trendmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of lightning flash density over India during different seasons

Prasanna,

Gopalakrishnan,

Pawar

2024

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lightning flash rate data measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) for the period 1996–2013 over India are analysed to study the spatial and temporal variation of lightning over India during different seasons. The convective available potential energy (CAPE) and other thermodynamic parameters data for the same period are taken for analysis. This study confirms a systematic increase in lightning flash rate density in India during the last two decades. The annual lightning flash rate density is high along the windward side of the Himalayan foothills with two peaks, one over northwestern parts of India (>50 flashes·km−2·year−1) and the other over northeastern parts of India (>40 flashes·km−2·year−1). The pre‐monsoon (March–May) (0.176 flasheskm−2·year−1) and monsoon (June–September) (0.159 flashes·km−2·year−1) lightning trends are the largest contributors in explaining the annual trend of 0.099 flashes·km−2·year−1. All seasons have shown more or less positive trends while post‐monsoon (October–December) has shown a negative trend (−0.013 flashes·km−2·year−1). The seasonal variations show that the lightning is increasing more over northwest India during the monsoon and northeast India during the pre‐monsoon. To further understand the connection between lightning and climate change, a few thermodynamic or microphysical properties are also analysed. This analysis suggests that the high CAPE values together with thermodynamics and cloud microphysical processes are necessary for organized convection and lightning over this region. Additionally, correlation analysis is adopted to identify the main influencing factors and regions contributing to lightning variability. The increase in lightning activity is found to be due to an increase in CAPE, low‐level moisture content and temperature. The increase in temperature and moisture is attributed to the land use land cover (LULC) changes in India. The impact of the above proxies on lightning varies from region to region and season to season. As several regions are undergoing rapid transformation due to human activity, this study provides insights into the need to understand land use related changes to local and regional lightning activity.

show abstract

“…https://www.indjst.org/ The association of lightning activities and western disturbance is supported by Indian researchers such as Murugavel & Shukla in their regions (23,24) . According to a recent study, the winter-time lightning over the foothills of the Himalayas region is due to the contribution of western disturbance (14) . Lightning activity is maximum during monsoon season over this region with fluctuating trend from June to September.…”

Section: Location and Climate Of The Area Of Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CAPE is dominating over the northeast region as well it is strongly impacted by the progress of the monsoon (13) . In the Himalayan region, CAPE and surface temperature are responsible for the instability (50-60 % relative humidity at 700 hpa) and lead to an ideal condition for intense lightning (14) . The satellite and model datasets are indicating that lightning activities are also governed by the aerosol concentration and it is increasing with the aerosol concentration (15,16) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning Development over the Distinct Climate Regions of Uttarakhand, India

Gautam¹,

Singh²,

Gautam³

et al. 2023

IJST

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: Lightning activity and its connections with meteorology and aerosol loading over Uttarakhand, with varying topography and climates, is studied using ISS Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) aboard international space station (ISS) data during the period 2018-2021. Methods: To understand the variation of lightning activity with meteorology and aerosol loading the correlation of lightning activity with different meteorological parameters such as surface temperature, convective available potential energy (CAPE), aerosol optical depth (AOD), and convective precipitation is studied. Findings: Very poor correlation is observed between lightning flash counts with the meteorological parameters. Annual variation of lightning activity over Uttarakhand shows maximum during the monsoon season (June-September) with a peak during the pre-monsoon season (March-May) month April. The high frequency of western disturbances defined as warm low-pressure systems associated with moisture originated over Mediterranean Sea travelling from west to east across the northern states are responsible for peak lightning activity during pre-monsoon month April and maximum lightning activity in the monsoon season is attributed to the monsoon convection. Novelty: The study made the spatio -temporal variation of lightning over Uttarakhand and also reveals the connection between lightning and different meteorological parameters in different climatic conditions of Uttarakhand which is first defining the importance of large-scale meteorological processes in the development of lightning in Uttarakhand.

show abstract

Comparative study of lightning climatology and the role of meteorological parameters over the Himalayan region

Cited by 8 publications

References 31 publications

Modeling Lightning Activity in the Third Pole Region: Performance of a km-Scale ICON-CLM Simulation

Modeling Lightning Activity in the Third Pole Region: Performance of a km-Scale ICON-CLM Simulation

Trends of lightning flash density over India during different seasons

Lightning Development over the Distinct Climate Regions of Uttarakhand, India

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About