POWRE: Using Total Lightning Data for Storm-scale Research

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The purpose of this research is to make use of maps of the paths of lightning flashes to study the electrical activity of storms in several different regions of the world. Such data have only recently become available. French scientists have developed an interferometry-based system called Safir that provides a two-dimensional map of lightning paths (that is, the paths projected onto a horizontal plane). More recently, researchers at New Mexico Tech have developed a system based on accurate time of arrival of the VHF signals from lightning to produce a three-dimensional map of the flashes. The New Mexico system, called the lightning mapping array (LMA), has been used in several parts of the United States; the Safir system in Europe, Japan, and Singapore. In collaboration with French and American colleagues, Dr. Stolzenburg will use sequences of maps from different locations to investigate characteristics of the lightning such as (1) relative number of intracloud and cloud-to-ground flashes; (2) evolution of the horizontal extent and total area covered by flashes; (3) development of lightning activity compared with the development of radar echoes of storms. The research is directed toward finding whether lightning data are useful as indicators of a storm's onset, severity, path, and decay, and to determining how the characteristics of lightning vary from one location to another.