Lightning Climatology

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Lightning Climatology Oklahoma Lightning Mapping
Array May - September, 2004 - 2005
Paul Krehbiel New Mexico Tech September 28, 2005
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Lightning Mapping Arrays (LMAs)

• Utilize time-of-arrival technique
• Consist of 10-12 stations over 50-70 km diameter
  area
• Passive system locates impulsive radio
  frequency signals produced by lightning (radio
  'static')
• Listens in a locally unused VHF TV channel (e.g.,
  Ch 3, 5, 8)
• Produce observations in near real-time (1-2
  minute delay)
• Provide good spatial accuracy and temporal
  resolution
• Existing systems
• New Mexico Tech LMAs Northern Alabama
  (NASA/Huntsville),
• Oklahoma (OU/NSSL), Langmuir Laboratory
  (NMT), WSMR, ...
• Vaisala (formerly GAI) LDAR II Dallas/Ft.
  Worth, Houston (TAMU),
• Kennedy Space Center.

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(See lightning.nmt.edu)
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Zoomed-in example Density of Points
Display Moore, OK tornadic storm May 10,
2003 10 min of observations (NLDN events in
green) -gt xlma analysis software
Texas
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Climatology Data from Oklahoma LMA

• The following slides show on a month-by-month
  basis the number of located LMA sources as a
  function of the day of the month and the hour of
  each day, in the form of a 3-dimensional bar
  graph (generated using the bar3 plotting tool
  of Matlab). The vertical bars indicate the
  number of sources per hour on a logarithmic scale
  to prevent large mesoscale systems from
  dominating the plots. The units are
  kilosources/hour, with a threshold value of 1000
  sources/hour being applied to discriminate
  against weakly-detected, distant storms from
  cluttering up the presentation (any storm of
  reasonable size and within range of the LMA will
  produce several thousand sources/hour).
• To determine what the storms look like
  during an active period, see http//lightning.nmt.
  edu/oklma.
• (Bar graphs are shown only for April through
  September but are available for the entire year.)
  

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Number of located LMA sources, April 2004,
Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, April 2005,
Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, May 2004, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, May 2005, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, June 2004, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, June 2005, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, July 2004, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, July 2005, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, Aug. 2004, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, Aug. 2005, Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, Sept. 2004,
Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, Sept. 2005,
Oklahoma
(Daylight 12-24 UTC 7 am 7 pm CDT)
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For real-time data plots, archived daily and
hourly, see http//lightning.nmt.edu/oklma
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Lightning Climatology STEPS 2000 Lightning
Mapping Array (NW Kansas, E Colorado, SW
Nebraska) May 24 August 10, 2000
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Two supercell storms in NW KansasSW Nebraska -
June 7, STEPS 2000 -13 station LMA network -
Close storm Low Precip - Far storm High
Precip - 10 min time interval - Continuous IC
lightning - Inverted polarity storms (deep
mid-level charge) - Only one NLDN event -
negative CG (real?) - Major advantage of total
lightning vs. CG only Note Major Ch 3 TV
interference, data processed with auto-
thresholding.
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Aircraft track and storms, May 25, STEPS
2000 (Aircraft being charged while flying
through down- wind cirrus/anvil cloud)
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Example of Highly Dendritic Negative CG flash
Height vs Time
Height vs E-W
Plan View
Height vs N-S
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Number of located LMA sources, May 2000, STEPS
(Daylight 12-02 UTC 6 am 8 pm MDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, June 2000, STEPS
(Daylight 12-02 UTC 6 am 8 pm MDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, July 2000, STEPS
(Daylight 12-02 UTC 6 am 8 pm MDT)
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Number of located LMA sources, August 2000, STEPS
(Daylight 12-02 UTC 6 am 8 pm MDT)
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(The End)
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Time-of-Arrival Concept
impulsive lightning event at (x, y, z t)
z
y
x
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University of Oklahoma/National Severe Storms
Laboratory
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(No Transcript)
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North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (NASA)
Map (10 stations)
http//branch.nsstc.nasa.gov/
One hour of real-time data
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New Mexico LMA Networks
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(No Transcript)