POWRE: Using Total Lightning Data for Storm-scale Research

这项研究的目的是利用闪电路径图来研究世界上几个不同地区的风暴的电活动。这样的数据是最近才有的。法国科学家开发了一种基于干涉测量的系统，名为Safir，它可以提供闪电路径(即投射到水平面上的路径)的二维地图。最近，新墨西哥理工学院的研究人员开发了一种基于闪电VHF信号准确到达时间的系统，以生成闪电的三维地图。新墨西哥州的系统被称为闪电测绘阵列(LMA)，已经在美国的几个地区使用；Safir系统在欧洲、日本和新加坡使用。Stolzenburg博士将与法国和美国的同事合作，使用来自不同地点的一系列地图来研究闪电的特征，例如：(1)云内闪电和云对地闪电的相对数目；(2)闪电水平范围和覆盖总面积的演变；(3)闪电活动与风暴雷达回波发展的比较。这项研究旨在找出闪电数据作为风暴开始、严重程度、路径和衰减的指示器是否有用，并确定闪电的特征如何从一个地点到另一个地点变化。

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.