On the association of lightning activity and projected change in climate over the Indian sub-continent

Saha, Upal; Siingh, Devendraa; Kamra, A. K.; Galanaki, Elissavet; Maitra, Animesh; Singh, R. P.; Singh, Abhay Kumar; Chakraborty, Swastika; Singh, R. P.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.09.001

Cited by 56 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Jayaratne, ; Kandalgaonkar et al ., ; Lal and Pawar, ; Siingh et al ., ; Kumar et al ., ) and flash rate density in regional‐and‐global‐scale studies (e.g. Petersen et al ., ; Albrecht et al ., ; Saha et al ., ). Flash rate density normalizes flash counts by accounting for duration of observations and detection efficiency (Cecil et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extensive studies were carried out in the past on monsoon‐dominated regions of Asia to understand spatio‐temporal variation and factors governing lightning using both ground‐based and satellite‐derived data. Factors studied include meteorological factors (Zheng et al ., ; Chate et al ., ; Saha et al ., ); latitudinal variation (Revadekar et al ., ); environmental pollution (Siingh et al ., ; Kumar et al ., ; Saha et al ., ); effect of ENSO (Yuan et al ., ); precipitation (Kodama et al ., ); and climate warming (Kandalgaonkar et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…local, regional or global) is useful to understand changes in the Earth's climate (Reeve and Toumi, ; Williams, ; Avila et al ., ), interaction between the radiative properties of the surface and the atmosphere (Kilinc and Beringer, ), management of wildfires (Stocks et al ., ), saving of lives and property (Holle, ), and so on. In addition, knowledge regarding factors that influence lightning is important for understanding the mechanism of its generation and improving forecasting of the phenomenon (Saha et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Saha et al . () indicated that upper tropospheric water vapour (300 hPa) strongly influenced lightning activity of Indian region. Chate et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Dewan

Ongee

Rafiuddin

et al. 2017

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Satellite‐derived lightning data for 17 years (1998–2014) were used to evaluate the relation between environmental factors and lightning activity over the Bangladesh landmass. Time series convective available potential energy (CAPE) data were extracted from ERA‐40 reanalysis data while total and convective rainfalls were obtained from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's monthly products. In addition, the product of CAPE and precipitation was computed and used as an additional variable. Three timescales – monthly, seasonal and annual – were utilized to determine the influence of precipitation and CAPE on lightning activity. The results indicated that CAPE stands out as an important variable at all of these timescales for predicting the occurrence of lightning. The correlation coefficient (r) between CAPE and lightning activity was found to be 0.902 (monthly), 0.703 (pre‐monsoon), 0.550 (monsoon) and 0.702 (annual), respectively. Total rain showed strong positive correlation with lightning on monthly scale (r = 0.734) and in the pre‐monsoon season (r = 0.701). However, such relationship was moderate during monsoon (r = 0.455). In contrast, convective rain showed slightly higher correlation during monsoon (r = 0.587) compared with that of pre‐monsoon season (r = 0.532). Because of strong seasonality in the data, convective rain did not exhibit strong relationship on annual scale (r = 0.227). The product variable (e.g. CAPE × precipitation) showed significant correlation on monthly (r = 0.895) and seasonal scales (r = 0.818 during pre‐monsoon and 0.686 in monsoon) but its influence appears to diminish on a longer timescale (r = 0.375). Spatial maps of correlation coefficient revealed significant positive correlation along relatively drier northern parts of Bangladesh. As lightning‐related fatality is on the rise, this study, first of its kind, is expected to inform public policy and provide information necessary for effective management of this atmospheric phenomenon to save lives and property in Bangladesh.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Saha et al . () indicated that upper tropospheric water vapour (300 hPa) strongly influenced lightning activity of Indian region. Chate et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Dewan

Ongee

Rafiuddin

et al. 2017

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Their results show an average 12%±5 increase per 1°C warming, based on a comparison of the period 1996-2005 with RCP8.5 scenario for the period 2079-2088. For the Indian sub-continent, Saha et al (2017) correlated lightning distributions with CAPE, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), surface precipitation and vegetation cover, and used a similar approach with the CMIP5 RCPs 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios and showed consistent mid-century (2036-2045) increases in AOD (1.28%−1.42%), convective precipitation amounts (1.9%-2.01%) and upper troposphere specific humidity at 300 hPa (1.31%-1.4%), which they considered to be strongly indicative of increased lightning activity. These regional estimates do not necessarily match global values.…”

Section: Lightning In a Warmer Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning hazards to human societies in a changing climate

Yair

2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Lightning is a natural hazard, lethal and destructive on short time scales and with important climatic effects on longer time-scales (through NOx production and forest fire ignition). It is accompanied by severe weather, hail and flash flooding that often entail significant economic losses. It also poses threats to aviation safety and to renewable energy production by wind-turbines, and is known to adversely affect electric power utilities and transmission lines. Present day global trends in urbanization, land-use and energy production are mapped to climate change through several scenarios, relating future concentrations of green-house gasses in the atmosphere ('Representative Concentration Pathways' or RCPs; IPCC et al 2013 Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p 1535) to the adopted energy policies and international agreements. These scenarios predict a few degrees of atmospheric warming near Earth surface, which offer significantly different climatic regimes in many regions on Earth, and also affect the intensity and frequency of atmospheric natural disasters (e.g. tropical storms). Although it is hard to precisely predict what future lightning distributions will look like, the combination of large metropolitan areas, increased population and a warmer climate almost guarantee an intensification of the human exposure to lightning hazard. We review current trends in population, urbanization and technology usage and assess their vulnerability to future lightning activity in different scenarios.

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Regional variability in lightning activity over South Asia

Kamra

Kumar

2020

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The regional variability of lightning activity over 10 different regions, selected with at least one major meteorological/topographical feature, of South Asia (8 N-36 N, 90 E-100 E) have been examined on all time scales from the data obtained from July 1995 to December 2013 from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite. A comparative study of the correlation coefficients calculated between lightning flash rate and convective parameters, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and topography for different regions is carried out. Impact of the progress of the Asian Monsoon on the spatio-temporal variability of flash rate is also examined. Monthly-averaged variations are annual at the regions >2,700 m in altitude and are semi-annual at the regions <2,700 m in altitude. The annually averaged flash rates increase during the study period in most of the regions. However, such long-term changes are nonlinearly related to the change in convective parameters and AOD and such interrelationships differ from one meteorological region to another. Small changes in AOD in high altitude regions are associated with very large changes in the surface temperature and flash rate. The flash rate is strongly correlated with surface temperature in the dry region of the northwest but with CAPE in moist region of the northeast. Progress of the Asian monsoon strongly impacts the flash rate in different regions. Ratio of the amplitudes of primary to secondary maxima at land stations increases with latitude in case of the monthly-averaged variations in flash rate. The primary maxima in these variations are highly correlated with the atmospheric surface temperature. However, the secondary maxima are associated with the low-level convergence during the withdrawal phase of the monsoon. Incursion of moisture by the Bay of Bengal branch of monsoon current determines the sequence of occurrence of lightning activity in different regions along the Himalayan foothills and northwest .

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On the association of lightning activity and projected change in climate over the Indian sub-continent

Cited by 56 publications

References 82 publications

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Lightning activity associated with precipitation and CAPE over Bangladesh

Lightning hazards to human societies in a changing climate

Regional variability in lightning activity over South Asia

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