The Urban Lightning Effect Revealed With Geostationary Lightning Mapper Observations

Within the Charlotte, North Carolina, to Atlanta, Georgia, megaregion (Charlanta), Atlanta metropolitan area has been shown augment proximal cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning occurrence. Although numerous studies have documented this “urban effect” (ULE) with regard CG lightning, relatively few investigated urban effects on distributions of total (TL). Moreover, there yet be a study ULE using TL observations from Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). In an effort fill gap, we spatial around cities GA, Greenville, SC, and NC, GLM data collected during warm seasons 2018–2021. Analyses reveal augmentation intensity frequency over major diminished signal smaller city Greenville. This work also demonstrated potential efficacy emerging satellite-based climatology in studies.