Lightning activity in the Mediterranean: quantification of cyclones contribution and relation to their intensity

Galanaki, Elissavet; Flaounas, Emmanouil; Kotroni, Vassiliki; Lagouvardos, Konstantinos; Argiriou, Athanassios A.

doi:10.1002/asl.685

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Galanaki et al . () showed that intense cyclones associated with lightning activity present their highest lightning activity on average about 6 hr prior to the maximum intensity, whilst similar studies for tropical cyclones and hurricanes show a temporal lag of 24–30 hr before their maximum intensity (Price et al, ; Zhang et al, ).…”

Section: Evolution Of the Tlc Between The Sixth And Ninth Of Novembermentioning

confidence: 88%

Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Dafis

Rysman

Claud

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Science Letters

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The Mediterranean basin occasionally hosts tropical‐like cyclones named “Medicanes”. Medicanes may have intensity comparable to hurricanes in terms of wind speeds along with an axisymmetric cloud structure. Although these events can be particularly violent, very few studies so far have investigated the distribution and temporal evolution of deep convection within these cyclones. In this study, the characteristics and lifetime of deep convection and lightning activity surrounding the core of the longest‐lasting and probably the most intense Medicane ever recorded in terms of wind speed (Rolf, November 2011) are presented by all available means of microwave and infrared satellite retrievals and a lightning detection system. Results showed that deep convective clouds penetrated the lowest stratosphere and were wrapped around the cyclone centre during the intensification period. Lightning activity was mostly active about a day before the maximum strength of the cyclone studied and it was not temporarily correlated with the most intense deep convection activity. Overall, this study reveals that spatial and temporal distribution of deep convection and lightning activity around the centre of Rolf show more similarities with Tropical Cyclones than intense Mediterranean cyclones.

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Section: Evolution Of the Tlc Between The Sixth And Ninth Of Novembermentioning

confidence: 88%

Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Dafis

Rysman

Claud

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Science Letters

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“…A plausible explanation might reside in the sharp sea-land transitions, where the influence of geographical elements might perturb total column water vapour and rainfall, as well as in the specificity of Mediterranean cyclones, where convection is not common in cyclone's centre. Indeed, Galanaki et al (2016) showed that only one third of intense Mediterranean cyclones might present lightning activity close to their centre. Therefore, one could not expect for the total of Mediterranean cyclones that convection would be related to cyclones' intensification through the release of latent heat and increased rainfall due to high water vapour content in the atmosphere.…”

Section: Quantification Of Cyclone Rainfallmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, convective rainfall was produced in the core of four cyclones and at the cold front of two. In a climatological framework, Galanaki et al (2016) used lightning observations to address the issue of DC in cyclone cores. Their results suggest that about one third of intense cyclones may develop DC close to their centre, while, in the other two thirds, no lightning was observed at all.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy rainfall in Mediterranean cyclones. Part I: contribution of deep convection and warm conveyor belt

et al. 2017

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In this study, we provide an insight to the role of deep convection (DC) and the warm conveyor belt (WCB) as leading processes to Mediterranean cyclones' heavy rainfall. To this end, we use reanalysis data, lighting and satellite observations to quantify the relative contribution of DC and the WCB to cyclone rainfall, as well as to analyse the spatial and temporal variability of these processes with respect to the cyclone centre and life cycle. Results for the period 2005-2015 show that the relationship between cyclone rainfall and intensity has high variability and demonstrate that even intense cyclones may produce low rainfall amounts. However, when considering rainfall averages for cyclone intensity bins, a linear relationship was found. We focus on the 500 most intense tracked cyclones (responsible for about 40-50% of the total 11-year Mediterranean rainfall) and distinguish between the ones producing high and low rainfall amounts. DC and the WCB are found to be the main cause of rainfall for the former (producing up to 70% of cyclone rainfall), while, for the latter, DC and the WCB play a secondary role (producing up to 50% of rainfall). Further analysis showed that rainfall due to DC tends to occur close to the cyclones' centre and to their eastern sides, while the WCBs tend to produce rainfall towards the northeast. In fact, about 30% of rainfall produced by DC overlaps with rainfall produced by WCBs but this represents only about 8% of rainfall produced by WCBs. This suggests that a considerable percentage of DC is associated with embedded convection in WCBs. Finally, DC was found to be able to produce higher rain rates than WCBs, exceeding 50 mm in 3-hourly accumulated rainfall compared to a maximum of the order of 40 mm for WCBs. Our results demonstrate in a climatological framework the relationship between cyclone intensity and processes that lead to heavy rainfall, one of the most prominent environmental risks in the Mediterranean. Therefore, we set perspectives for a deeper analysis of the favourable atmospheric conditions that yield high impact weather.

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“…From the late summer on, lightning activity moves gradually to the coast and offshore, where the activity is dominant in autumn. This change is related to the average land/sea temperature difference, the average sea surface temperature being warmer during autumn compared to land (Kotroni and Lagouvardos, 2016;Galanaki et al, 2018).…”

Section: Lightning Activity In the Region Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thunderstorm characteristics favouring downward and upward lightning to wind turbines

Pineda

Montanyà

Salvador

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Research

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Meteorological conditions and thunderstorm characteristics related to lightning threats to wind turbines are discussed in this paper. Due to the rotating blades, wind turbines may be regarded peculiar tall objects, more susceptible to lightning strikes than other tall man-made structures. In the present study, Lightning Mapping Array and weather radar observations allowed to draw a clear picture of the thunderstorm characteristics leading to lightning strokes to wind turbines, in a coastal area of the Mediterranean basin. Results showed that lightning threats to wind turbines tend to occur during transitional periods (spring and autumn), although the main thunderstorm activity concentrates in the warm summer months. Thunderstorms with downward strokes to wind turbines presented particular features, like a limited vertical development and a dominant lower positive charge layer. Downward cloud-to-ground strokes hitting wind turbines were mainly of negative polarity and with peak currents above the average. On the other hand, conditions for selfinitiated upwards from wind turbines resemble those reported in Japan and the U.S winter thunderstorms, with low-cloud based large electrified stratiform regions. These particular conditions, leading to lightning threats to wind turbines, should be properly included in lightning protection standards.

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Lightning activity in the Mediterranean: quantification of cyclones contribution and relation to their intensity

Cited by 21 publications

References 29 publications

Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Heavy rainfall in Mediterranean cyclones. Part I: contribution of deep convection and warm conveyor belt

Thunderstorm characteristics favouring downward and upward lightning to wind turbines

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