Land-Sea Contrast in the Lightning Diurnal Variation as Observed by the WWLLN and LIS/OTD Data

• Published in: Acta meteorologica Sinica Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 591 - 600
• Main Author: 潘伦湘 刘冬霞 郄秀书 王东方 朱润鹏
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2013; Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation(LAGEO), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029%Key Laboratory of Semi-Arid Climate Change of Ministry of Education, and College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000
• Subjects: Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics and Environmental Physics; LIS; Meteorology; OTD; 成像传感器; 数据集; 日变化; 昼夜变化; 闪电密度; 闪电活动; lightning activity; WWLLN; LIS/OTD; diurnal variation
• ISSN: 0894-0525; 2191-4788
• DOI: 10.1007/s13351-013-0408-0

Data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network （WWLLN） for the period 2005-2011 and data composite of the Lightning Imaging Sensor/Optical Transient Detector （LIS/OTD） for 1995-2010 are used to analyze the lightning activity and its diurnal variation over land and ocean of the globe. The Congo basin shows a peak mean annual flash density of 160.7 fl km-2 yr-1 according to the LIS/OTD. The annual mean land to ocean flash ratio is 9.6：1, which confirms the result from Christian et al. in 2003 based on only 5-yr OTD data. The lightning density detected by the WWLLN is in general one order of magnitude lower than that of the LIS/OTD. The diurnal cycle of the lightning activity over land shows a single peak, with the maximum activity occurring around 1400-1900 LT （Local Time） and a minimum in the morning from both datasets. The oceanic diurnal variation has two peaks： the early morning peak between 0100 and 0300 LT and the afternoon peak with a stronger intensity between 1100 and 1400 LT over the Pacific Ocean, as revealed from the WWLLN dataset; whereas the diurnal variation over ocean in the LIS/OTD dataset shows a large fluctuation.