http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V95-42BTKBJ-W&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cd0feceee0cb5ec49b662346af0bbfd5
Some aspects of the correlation between lightning and rain activities in thunderstorms
Purchase the full-text article
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.
Serge SoulaCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author and Serge Chauzy
Laboratoire d’Aérologie, UMR 5560 UPS/CNRS OMP, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Accepted 21 November 2000
Available online 13 February 2001.
Abstract
The lightning activity of convective systems is a sometimes fruitful indicator of their precipitation production. The present study compares rain volume with different types of lightning activity in several convective systems. The study uses data obtained in the Paris area where two lightning detection systems coexist. The Météorage network provides the location and the polarity of cloud-to-ground flashes, while the SAFIR system detects the total flash activity: cloud-to-ground, intra-cloud flashes and VHF individual sources within a given time window. The overall spatial correlation between rain and lightning appears to be very consistent for all lightning types. A pixel-to-pixel study shows that positive CG flashes are associated with higher rainwater volume than negative flashes. Introducing a weight coefficient for positive CG flashes considerably improves the correlation between rain amount and lightning production. Taking into account the specific contribution of each type of lightning flash, the amount of rain can be estimated from the total electrical activity of each system. Comparison with the amount derived from radar measurement shows reasonable agreement. Finally, the parallel time evolutions of rain and lightning rates display quite similar characteristics.
Author Keywords: Lightning; Convective systems; Rainfall
Quote selectie