Abstract During November 2018–April 2019, an 11-station very high frequency (VHF) Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) was deployed to Córdoba Province, Argentina. The purpose of the LMA was validation of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), but the deployment was coordinated with two field campaigns. The LMA observed 2.9 million flashes (≥ five sources) during 163 days, and level-1 (VHF locations), level-2 (flashes classified), and level-3 (gridded products) datasets have been made public. The network’s performance allows scientifically useful analysis within 100 km when at least seven stations were active. Careful analysis beyond 100 km is also possible. The LMA dataset includes many examples of intense storms with extremely high flash rates (>1 s−1), electrical discharges in overshooting tops (OTs), as well as anomalously charged thunderstorms with low-altitude lightning. The modal flash altitude was 10 km, but many flashes occurred at very high altitude (15–20 km). There were also anomalous and stratiform flashes near 5–7 km in altitude. Most flashes were small (<50 km2 area). Comparisons with GLM on 14 and 20 December 2018 indicated that GLM most successfully detected larger flashes (i.e., more than 100 VHF sources), with detection efficiency (DE) up to 90%. However, GLM DE was reduced for flashes that were smaller or that occurred lower in the cloud (e.g., near 6-km altitude). GLM DE also was reduced during a period of OT electrical discharges. Overall, GLM DE was a strong function of thunderstorm evolution and the dominant characteristics of the lightning it produced.
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SAETTA: high-resolution 3-D mapping of the total lightning activity in the Mediterranean Basin over Corsica, with a focus on a mesoscale convective system event
Abstract. Deployed on the mountainous island of Corsica for thunderstormmonitoring purposes in the Mediterranean Basin, SAETTA is a network of 12 LMA(Lightning Mapping Array, designed by New Mexico Tech, USA) stations thatallows the 3-D mapping of very high-frequency (VHF) radiation emitted by cloud discharges in the60–66 MHz band. It works at high temporal (∼40 ns in each 80 µs time window) and spatial (tens of meters at best) resolutionwithin a range of about 350 km. Originally deployed in May 2014, SAETTA wascommissioned during the summer and autumn seasons and has now been permanentlyoperational since April 2016 until at least the end of 2020. We firstevaluate the performances of SAETTA through the radial, azimuthal, andaltitude errors of VHF source localization with the theoretical model ofThomas et al. (2004). We also compute on a 240 km × 240 km domainthe minimum altitude at which a VHF source can be detected by at least sixstations by taking into account the masking effect of the relief. We thenreport the 3-year observations on the same domain in terms of number oflightning days per square kilometer (i.e., total number of days during whichlightning has been detected in a given 1 km square pixel) and in terms oflightning days integrated across the domain. The lightning activity is firstmaximum in June because of daytime convection driven by solar energy input,but concentrates on a specific hot spot in July just above the intersectionof the three main valleys. This hot spot is probably due to the low-levelconvergence of moist air fluxes from sea breezes channeled by the threevalleys. Lightning activity increases again in September due to numeroussmall thunderstorms above the sea and to some high-precipitation events.Finally we report lightning observations of unusual high-altitude dischargesassociated with the mesoscale convective system of 8 June 2015. Most ofthem are small discharges on top of an intense convective core duringconvective surges. They are considered in the flash classification of Thomaset al. (2003) to be small–isolated and short–isolated flashes. The other high-altitude discharges, much less numerous, are long-range flashes that developthrough the stratiform region and suddenly undergo upward propagationstowards an uppermost thin layer of charge. This latter observation isapparently consistent with the recent conceptual model of Dye and Bansemer (2019) that explains such an upper-level layer of charge in the stratiformregion by the development of a non-riming ice collisional charging in amesoscale updraft.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1720600
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10440545
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 1867-8548
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5765 to 5790
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5765-2019
