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Influence of meteorological parameters on lightning flashes over Indian region

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Abstract

Lightning flashes (LF) and their association with meteorological variables that can influence the occurrence of lightning have been assessed in detail over the Indian domain, i.e., the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Relative Humidity (RH), Total Column Water Vapour (TCWV), Surface Temperature (ST) and Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR). A high-resolution dataset of LF has been retrieved from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. The CAPE, TCWV, RH and ST from 1998 to 2013 are retrieved using ERA-Interim monthly/annual climatology while OLR was retrieved from NCEP datasets. The seasonal analysis shows that most LF occur during the pre-monsoon period (March, April, and May) (0.40–0.45 flash/km2/day) over northeast region. During the monsoon season (June, July, and August), the LF dominates over northern India (0.35–0.40 flash/km2/day). The seasonal variation of CAPE shows the maximum (1250–2250 J/kg) during pre-monsoon over the coastal area of NE and SE regions. TCWV and RH show the maximum in monsoon season over northeastern part, which is 50–70 kg/m2 and 60–80%, respectively. The dependence of LF on meteorological parameters varies from region to region, as is evident from statistical analysis. Maximum LF occurred over the NE (0.049 flash/km2/day) region, followed by the EC (0.041 flash/km2/day) and the lowest in the WC (0.027 flash/km2/day) region of India. The LF showed a significant correlation with CAPE over NE and EC of India because of higher humidity content values over the coastal regions, which form graupel through convection. Over the WH, LF and CAPE showed a good correlation (r = 0.94) because of orographic convection processes. Further, TCWV showed significant correlation with LF over WH (0.89) and minimum over WC (0.23) region. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that lightning is well correlated with CAPE, RH, TCWV and ST over most regions in India. However, lightning is not significantly correlated with OLR. Understanding the meteorology of lightning across the Indian region can inform forecasting of possible lightning events and is relevant for assessing lightning for human, wild risk and climate projections.

Research highlights

  • The regional-scale meteorological variables associated with lightning are identified.

  • Due to the regional orography, lightning flashes show high correlation in proximity to meteorological variables.

  • The spatio-temporal distribution shows that most of the lightning flashes occur during March, April and May (MAM) months over North East region.

  • The impact of meteorological variables is visible as the study's threshold values change over time.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank the Earth Observatory System and Science Programme for providing the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission/Lightning Imagine sensor (TRMM/LIS) data and ERA-Interim produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for necessary data providing. Finally, thank the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data developed by NOAA's National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) for OLR data. Funding support from the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) project (MoES/16/18/2017-RDEAS) is acknowledged. This research is also partially supported by a grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India under FIST Program 2022 (SR/FST/ES-1/2022/102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Pramod Kumar Yadava, Ajay Sharma, R K Mall & Sunita Verma

  2. Department of Remote Sensing, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Swagata Payra

  3. DST-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    R K Mall & Sunita Verma

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  1. Pramod Kumar Yadava
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection, graphics and analysis were performed by Pramod Kumar Yadava (PKY) and Ajay Sharma (AS). The first draft of the manuscript was written by Sunita Verma (SV). Swagata Payra (SP), and R K Mall (RKM) supervised the manuscript at different stages. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sunita Verma.

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Communicated by Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

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Yadava, P.K., Sharma, A., Payra, S. et al. Influence of meteorological parameters on lightning flashes over Indian region. J Earth Syst Sci 132, 179 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02188-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02188-w

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