Relationship between Lightning Activity over Peninsular India and Sea Surface Temperature

Abstract

This paper presents a study of spatiotemporal variation of lightning activity over Peninsular India (88-228N, 728-888E) by using monthly satellite-based lightning flash grid (18 3 18) data for a period of 10 yr (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). The data are examined in terms of spatial, annual, and seasonal distribution of the lightning activity. It is found that lightning activity is higher over south Peninsular India and eastern India. On a seasonal time scale, the lightning activity shows two maxima-first in the month of May and then in the month of September. The lightning activity in the monsoon period is noticed to be considerable because of the occurrence of the lowlevel jet and increase in the monsoon break period. During the postmonsoon, the activity is mainly due to the presence of the convective nature of the disturbed weather during the northeast monsoon season over most parts of the east coast of south Peninsular India. The relationship between lightning activity over Peninsular India and sea surface temperature in the bordering seas (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) is also examined. The results disclose a significant link between them.

Cloud-to-ground lightning in Portugal: patterns and dynamical forcing

“…Pinto and Pinto, 2008), sea surface temperatures (e.g. Altaratz et al, 2003;Tinmaker et al, 2010), elevation parameters (e.g. Dissing and Verbyla, 2003), lakeeffects (e.g.…”

Lightning and convective rain over Indian peninsula and Indo-China peninsula

“…Owing to the close association between lightning and convective activity in a region, the relationship between lightning activity and several factors related to convections have been investigated by many investigators in different regions (Williams and Lhermitte, 1983;Williams and Renno, 1993;Zhou et al, 1999;Qie et al, 2003;Tinmaker et al, 2010;Tinmaker and Ali, 2012;Siingh et al, , 2014. The main difference in convective activity over the peninsular and sea regions arises due to larger convection over land surface as compared to sea surface.…”

“…(Massie et al, 2004;Cheng et al, 2007;Tinmaker et al, 2010;Yuan et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Siingh et al, , 2014Kulkarni and Siingh, 2014). Aerosols present in the atmosphere scatter, reflect and absorb incident solar radiation and thus affect the solar radiation budget, surface temperature and outgoing long wave radiation.…”

“…Reeve and Toumi (1999) suggested poor correlation between SST and lightning activity over sea, whereas Petersen et al (1996) and Rivas Soriano et al (2001) reported good positive correlation between lightning flashes and SST for the Arabian sea (correlation coefficient $0.85) and Bay of Bengal (correlation coefficient $0.92). Tinmaker et al (2010) showed that SST of the Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal play a crucial role in the development of thunderstorm and lightning activity over the adjoining peninsular region of India. In order to understand this complex behavior, we decompose the relationships between SST and lightning into their components:…”

Lightning and middle atmospheric discharges in the atmosphere

“…Deep convection may result into towering clouds up to the tropopause leading to the possibility of enhanced lightning activity. However, CAPE is not the sole parameter to control lightning activity as is evident from the fact that for the same value of CAPE over land surface and warm ocean water, maritime lightning activity is much reduced (Lucas et al, 1994;Kandalgaonkar et al, 2005;Tinmaker et al, 2010;Kumar and Kamra, 2012;Siingh et al, 2015). One of the reasons may be difference in conversion efficiency of CAPE to updraft kinetic energy.…”