ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-9-7795-2009 Lightning characteristics observed by a VLF/LF lightning detection network (LINET) in Brazil, Australia, Africa and Germany Höller H. 1 Betz H.-D. 2 Schmidt K. 3 8 Calheiros R. V. 4 May P. 5 Houngninou E. 6 Scialom G. 7 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Physics Department, University of Munich, Germany nowcast GmbH, Munich, Germany Instituto de Pesquisas Meteorológicas/Universidade Estadual Paulista, Bauru, Brazil Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Melbourne, Australia University Abomey Calavi, Cotonou, Benin Centre d'étude des Environnements Terrestre et Planétaires, Vélizy, France now at: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany 20 10 2009 9 20 7795 7824 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/7795/2009/acp-9-7795-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/7795/2009/acp-9-7795-2009.pdf

This paper describes lightning characteristics as obtained in four sets of lightning measurements during recent field campaigns in different parts of the world from mid-latitudes to the tropics by the novel VLF/LF (very low frequency/low frequency) lightning detection network (LINET). The paper gives a general overview on the approach, and a synopsis of the statistical results for the observation periods as a whole and for one special day in each region. The focus is on the characteristics of lightning which can specifically be observed by this system like intra-cloud and cloud-to-ground stroke statistics, vertical distributions of intra-cloud strokes or peak current distributions. Some conclusions regarding lightning produced NO<sub>x</sub> are also presented as this was one of the aims of the tropical field campaigns TROCCINOX (Tropical Convection, Cirrus and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment) and TroCCiBras (Tropical Convection and Cirrus Experiment Brazil) in Brazil during January/February 2005, SCOUT-O3 (Stratospheric-Climate Links with Emphasis on the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere) and TWP-ICE (Tropical Warm Pool-International Cloud Experiment) during November/December 2005 and January/February 2006, respectively, in the Darwin area in N-Australia, and of AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses) in W-Africa during June–November 2006. <br><br> Regional and temporal characteristics of lightning are found to be dependent on orographic effects (e.g. S-Germany, Brazil, Benin), land-sea breeze circulations (N-Australia) and especially the evolution of the monsoons (Benin, N-Australia). Large intra-seasonal variability in lightning occurrence was found for the Australian monsoon between the strong convection during build-up and break phases and the weak active monsoon phase with only minor lightning activity. Total daily lightning stroke rates can be of comparable intensity in all regions with the heaviest events found in Germany and N-Australia. The frequency of occurrence of such days was by far the largest in N-Australia. In accordance with radar observed storm structures, the intra-cloud stroke mean emission heights were found distinctly different in Germany (8 km) as compared to the tropics (up to 12 km in N-Australia). The fraction of intra-cloud strokes (compared to all strokes) was found to be relatively high in Brazil and Australia (0.83 and 0.82, respectively) as compared to Benin and Germany (0.64 and 0.69, respectively). <br><br> Using stroke peak currents and vertical location information, lightning NO<sub>x</sub> (LNO<sub>x</sub>) production under defined standard conditions can be compared for the different areas of observation. LNO<sub>x</sub> production per standard stroke was found to be most efficient for the N-Australian and S-German thunderstorms whereas the yield from Brazilian and W-African strokes was nearly 40% less. On the other hand, the main NO contribution in Brazil was from intra-cloud (IC) strokes whereas in Benin it was due to cloud-to-ground (CG) components. For the German and Australian strokes both stroke types contributed similar amounts to the total NO outcome.

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