Sprite climatology in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Yair, Yoav; Price, Colin; Katzenelson, Dor; Rosenthal, Neta; Rubanenko, Lior; Ben-Ami, Y.; Arnone, Enrico

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2014.12.018

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…This behavior is very consistent among the 5 years of the sample. The activity in the Southern Mediterranean Sea is consistent with the onset of maritime thunderstorms in autumn and winter (see Yair et al, 2015, for further details). Comparison to Fig.…”

Section: Tle Seasonal Cycle Above Europe: Changes To the Mean Geographical Distributionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Such a large number of observations allows for the first time detailed climatological studies to be performed over Europe and the Mediterranean sea, therefore studying the geographical distribution and variability of mean TLE occurrence over a time span of several years rather than looking at individual events. A Southern Mediterranean example was presented by Yair et al (2015) and an introduction to the climatology presented here was published by Arnone and Dinelli (2016). Despite being inhomogeneously distributed, the number of ground-based observed sprites largely exceeds that acquired globally from satellites over equivalent periods of time (Chen et al, 2008).…”

Section: A Climatological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatology of Transient Luminous Events and Lightning Observed Above Europe and the Mediterranean Sea

et al. 2019

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In 1999, the first sprites were observed above European thunderstorms using sensitive cameras. Since then, Eurosprite campaigns have been conducted to observe sprites and other transient luminous events (TLEs), expanding into a network covering large parts of Europe and coastal areas. In 2009 through 2013, the number of optical observations of TLEs reached a peak of 2000 per year. Because of this unprecedented number of European observations, it was possible to construct 5 a climatology of 8394 TLEs observed above 1018 thunderstorm systems, and study for the first time their distribution and seasonal cycle above Europe and parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The number of TLEs per thunderstorm was found to follow a power law, with less than 10 TLEs for 801 thunderstorms and up to 195 TLEs above the most prolific one. The majority of TLEs were classified as sprites, 641 elves, 280 halos, 70 upward lightning, 2 blue jets and 1 gigantic jet. The climatology 10 shows intense TLE activity during summer over continental areas, and in late autumn over coastal 1 vised manuscript with changes highlighted Click here to access/download;attachment to manuscript;Arnone2019_SG_revised_manuscript_RM_changes_ lick here to view linked References areas and sea. The two seasons peak respectively in August and November, separated by March and April with almost no TLEs, and a relative minimum around September. The observed TLE activity, i.e. mostly sprites, is shown to be largely consistent with lightning activity, with a 1/1000 of observed TLE to lightning ratio in regions with most observations. The overall behavior is consistent among individual years, making the observed seasonal cycle a robust general feature of TLE activity above Europe. Article Highlights• Detailed climatological study of TLEs and lightning above Europe produced for the first time • Seasonal cycle of TLEs and lightning with two active seasons in summer over land and autumn over sea and coastal areas • Power law distribution of number of TLEs per thunderstorm Keywords Thunderstorms, lightning, transient luminous events, ground-based observations, Europe, climatology. 1 Introduction 1.1 Transient luminous events Three decades ago, a test low-light camera recorded a sprite (Franz et al., 1990), a spectacular discharge extending for tens of km above a thunderstorm. It was the first discovery of a whole family of upper atmosphere electrical processes, collectively known as transient luminous events (TLEs -see

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Section: Tle Seasonal Cycle Above Europe: Changes To the Mean Geographical Distributionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: A Climatological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology of Transient Luminous Events and Lightning Observed Above Europe and the Mediterranean Sea

et al. 2019

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“…However, Saaroni et al (1998) indicated that trough is drawn northwards and activated by moisture, and finally flooded in the eastern Mediterranean Sea if it is accompanied by a high-level tropospheric trough. This is in line with the results of other studies (e.g., Krichak et al 2000Krichak et al , 2012De Vries et al 2013;Haggag & Al-Badry 2013;Yair et al 2015). Furthermore, discovered the Sudan low nature and RST using the mean sea level pressure (SLP) for the 1955-2015 winter period.…”

Section: Graphical Abstract Introductionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Sudan low changes affecting rainy days in southwestern Iran over six decades (1957–2019)

Mohammadi

Hombari

Pazhoh

2021

Journal of Water and Climate Change

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The present study evaluated the dynamic changes in Sudan low systems during six decades (1957–2019), which were classified based on solar cycles. Rainfall days were extracted in January using data from 42 synoptic stations in the south and southwest regions of Iran. Then, the rainy days due to the Sudan low system were separated from the precipitation of the other atmospheric systems using the visual analysis of the maps. The synoptic analysis indicated that the sea level pressure has been decreasing at all sampling stations from the first to the sixth decade. Furthermore, decreasing elevation to −80 m (negative anomaly) in the 500 hPa level atmosphere from the first decade to the sixth decade, indicated further atmospheric instability and more strengthening of the Sudan low compared to previous decades. The contribution of advection moisture to the area increased within the region at 700 hPa. This implies that the role of the transferred moisture from the intertropical convergence zone is increasing in the systems transferred from Sudan and in the study area. In general, the share of Sudan low precipitation is increasing in the south and southwest regions of Iran. This result is a positive effect of the climate change on the study area.

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“…Red sprites, as one major type of lightning-induced transient luminous events (TLEs) above thunderstorms, are short-lived (typically < 20 ms) structured optical emissions that could be observed from both ground-based (Franz et al 1990;Boccippio et al 1995;Lyons 1996;Yair et al 2015) and space-borne platforms (Yair et al 2004;Chen et al 2008;Jehl et al 2013;Sato et al 2015). The broad connection between sprites and energetic cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strokes has been established by concurrent recording of distinct radio frequency electromagnetic pulses commonly registered upon the sprite observation (Reising et al 1996;Cummer et al 1998;Huang et al 1999;Li et al 2008;Lu et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Lu¹,

Cummer²,

Chen³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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We examined the broadband (< 1 Hz to 30 kHz) lightning sferics associated with 395 sprites observed near North America by the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) onboard the FORMOSAT-2 satellite in a 12-year period from 2004 -2015. Our analysis indicates that the ISUAL dataset contains a significant fraction (69, or ~18%) of negative sprites, which were predominantly (> 80%) observed over oceanic and coastal thunderstorms mostly in tropical areas. The mean and median of impulse charge moment change (iCMC) associated with positive (negative) sprites are +346 C km (-709 C km) and +280 C km (-649 C km), respectively. The morphology and parent lightning properties (e.g., typically with high peak currents > -80 kA and large iCMCs > -300 C km) of negative sprites observed by the ISUAL are generally consistent with that documented in ground-based observations, but the ISUAL dataset does imply that sprites are sometimes produced by negative strokes with sub-critical iCMCs (less than -300 C km). Consequently, the future survey of global occurrence of sprites is desired to be based on complementary ground and space-borne observations.

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Sprite climatology in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Cited by 15 publications

References 53 publications

Climatology of Transient Luminous Events and Lightning Observed Above Europe and the Mediterranean Sea

Climatology of Transient Luminous Events and Lightning Observed Above Europe and the Mediterranean Sea

Sudan low changes affecting rainy days in southwestern Iran over six decades (1957–2019)

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

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