Total lightning activity as an indicator of updraft characteristics

Abstract

[1] This study investigates the relationship of total lightning activity and updraft characteristics, such as updraft volume and maximum updraft speed, for a number of storms of different types occurring in the High Plains and in Northern Alabama. Ground-based Doppler and dual polarimetric radar observations were used to compute updraft characteristics. Also, ground-based total lightning data were available at both locations. Results show that time series of updraft volume in the charging zone (at temperatures colder than À5°C) with vertical velocities greater than either 5 or 10 m s À1 have clear relationships with total lightning activity (r = 0.93). Furthermore, these relationships between updraft volume and lightning activity for the storm types of the two climate regimes tend to converge when considering only the subfreezing layers of the clouds. Neither the maximum nor the mean updraft speed correlate as well with total lightning activity (r = <0.8) as updraft volume. Through expanded study designed to explore further regime variability (or lack thereof) of updraft volume-lightning flash rate relationships, better or refined parameterizations for the numerical forecasting of lightning and/or detection and prediction of storm intensity could be realized.

On Polarimetric Radar Signatures of Deep Convection for Model Evaluation: Columns of Specific Differential Phase Observed during MC3E*

“…Multiple studies have confirmed and elaborated on the relationship between lightning activity and multi-Doppler radar derived updrafts (Lang and Rutledge 2002;Tessendorf et al 2007b,a;Deierling and Petersen 2008;Calhoun et al 2013) and several have investigated the relationships between polarimetric variables and electrical activity in deep convection storms (Carey and Rutledge 1998;Tessendorf et al 2005;Wiens et al 2005;Bruning et al 2007;Lund et al 2009;Payne et al 2010;Griffin et al 2014). (Heistermann et al 2015).…”

“…Graupel is produced in regions where riming growth is dominant, in other words, regions of deep convection updrafts. Studies, for example, Deierling and Petersen (2008) have confirmed a strong link between updraft volume and total flash rate in storm systems, with Wiens et al (2005) stressing the importance of using flash density, rather than raw VHF source density, as a measure of lightning activity.…”

Characteristics of Lightning Jumps Associated with a Tornadic Supercell on 2 September 2013

“…These large volumes of moderate-to-large reflectivities above the freezing level suggest that frozen precipitation (particularly graupel) was distributed (Emersic et al 2011). TFRs are well correlated with the graupel echo volume (Wiens et al 2005) and with updraft volume (>5 m s −1 ) above the >−5°C level (Deierling and Petersen 2008). Hence, the present results imply that both the volume and the magnitude of the updraft were enhanced effectively by vorticity growth in the mid-level MC, and that a large amount of graupel was produced above the freezing level.…”

Total Lightning Flash Activity Response to Aerosol over China Area

“…Lightning intensity was closely linked with convection intensity. The strong updraft, a deep ice water mixing region, and large ice particles' flux may enhance lightning activities of a thunderstorm [6][7][8]. The intimate connection between electrical activity and some factors in the mixed-phase region was mainly due to the non-inductive charging process where rebounding collisions between big and small ice particles lead to appreciable charge separation.…”