Lightning Characteristics and Storm Kinematics during the RELAMPAGO Field Campaign
Abstract
Previous studies have provided evidence that storm kinematics are correlated to lightning characteristics. New insights further suggest that there may be physical connections between in-cloud convective turbulence and some lightning characteristics.
As part of the NSF field campaign RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) that took place from November-December 2018 in Argentina various lightning instruments were deployed by the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. This combined instrumentation provides a unique opportunity to comprehensively document the electrical evolution of a variety of storms observed during RELAMPAGO in the Cordoba, Argentina region. Furthermore, various dual-Doppler, dual polarization X- and C-band radars were deployed during RELAMPAGO allowing documentation of storm kinematics and microphysics. Herein we use the radar measured spectrum width from these radar measurements to infer energy dissipation rate (EDR) - a metric of turbulence. EDR is computed based on previous studies and after taking range dependencies and data quality related issues into account. Inferred turbulence characteristics are compared to lightning characteristics for different storms observed during RELAMPAGO. Initial results of comparisons between EDR and total lightning characteristics for these different storms will be shown.- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMAE0090006D
- Keywords:
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- 3304 Atmospheric electricity;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3314 Convective processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3324 Lightning;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3329 Mesoscale meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES