Study of the Lightning Activity Over Poland for Different Solar Activity

Abstract

The question of the connection between solar and thunderstorm activity is not new. The discussion among scientists began before the cosmic era. The correlations of the ground-based registration of the cosmic ray flux and meteorological observations have been performed since the 50s of the 20th century. The discussed problem is related to the influence of cosmic rays on the creation of clouds, particularly thunderstorm clouds. The intensity of the galactic cosmic ray flux is controlled by the density and velocity of the solar wind. The increase in the solar wind flux during high solar activity leads to decreasing galactic cosmic ray flux, but on the other hand, the solar activity creates solar cosmic rays. Using data from the PERUN system and the DEMETER satellite, we tried to estimate the connection between the thunderstorm activity in Poland and solar activity during the period of the DEMETER operational activity (2004–2010). The influence of thunderstorms on the ionosphere and its dependence on solar activity is also discussed. However, due to the short time interval of the available data covering an insignificant part of the solar cycle, close to the minimum activity, our findings are not fully conclusive. No correlation was found between the cosmic ray flux and lightning activity given by the number of the discharges. However, some of the most energetic lightning discharges in the analyzed period occurred close to the minimum of the solar activity and their appearance is discussed.