Lightning occurrence in relation with elevation, terrain slope, and vegetation cover in the Mediterranean

Abstract

[1] In the frame of this paper, 1-year of lightning data from the experimental network ZEUS operated by National Observatory of Athens is analyzed. The area of interest is the Mediterranean and surrounding countries. At a first stage, the ZEUS data are compared with the data provided by the UK Met Office long-range lightning detection network for the warm period of the year. It was found that although ZEUS system underestimates the nighttime and early morning activity, during the rest of the day ZEUS system detects increased number of lightning compared to ATD that suffers from saturation when the number of flashes exceeds a certain threshold. Furthermore, the possible relationship between lightning and elevation, terrain slope and vegetation is investigated. The analysis showed that during spring and summer there is a positive relationship of lightning activity with elevation, while this feature is not evident during the rest of the year. The lightning activity was found to be positively correlated with the elevation slope throughout the year except winter. As it concerns the vegetation cover, it was found that over bareground the lightning ''yield'' is low during the whole year, while the inverse is true for woodland areas. During the warm period of the year, due to drying of the Mediterranean surfaces, the forested and wooded areas that keep soil moisture present increased lightning ''yield'' in contrast with the shrubland areas that, for the same period, present a decreased lightning yield.Citation: Kotroni, V., and K. Lagouvardos (2008), Lightning occurrence in relation with elevation, terrain slope, and vegetation cover in the Mediterranean,

An overview of the lightning and atmospheric electricity observations collected in southern France during the HYdrological cycle in Mediterranean EXperiment (HyMeX), Special Observation Period 1

“…Then the lightning location is retrieved (at the central station) using the arrival time difference technique. Further details on the ZEUS network are given in Kotroni and Lagouvardos (2008). Lagouvardos et al (2009) have compared the ZEUS system with the LINET system over a major area of central-western Europe, where the latter system presents its major efficiency and accuracy, and found that the location error of ZEUS was 6.8 km and the detection efficiency 25 %.…”

Lightning activity, rainfall and flash flooding – occasional or interrelated events? A case study in the island of Crete

“…Many studies have been conducted in order to correlate the precipitation characteristics and the lightning activity flashes (Soula and Chauzy, 2001;Tapia et al, 1998;Zhou et al, 2002;Kempf and Krider, 2003;Katsanos et al, 2007;Pineda et al, 2010). Tapia et al (1998), analyzed lightning observations from 22 thunderstorms in Florida, concluding that it is possible to derive estimates of precipitation in space and time for heavy rainfall events.…”

Relationships between lightning and rainfall intensities during rainy events in Cyprus

“…Not all the rain gauges were used for every rainy event, since precipitation measurements were not always readily available due to gaps in the data or rain gauge malfunctioning. Lightning data retrieved from the ZEUS system were provided by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) in Greece (an assessment of the performance of the ZEUS system has been presented by Morales et al, 2007, and, more recently, by Lagouvardos, 2008, andLagouvardos et al, 2009).…”