Application of Lightning in Predicting High Impact Weather

Recent research has indicated a strong correlation between total lighting data (both in-cloud and cloud-to-ground) and severe weather such as hail and high wind storms. The lightning activities preceding severe storms have certain characteristics in lightning flashes, such as high in-cloud (IC) flash rates in the storm formation stage. The greater volume of strong updrafts during a severe thunderstorm results in more charging overall, leading to greater numbers of ICs and positive cloud-to-ground (CG) flash rates. The detection of total lightning data, especially IC lightning, enables improvements in the lead time of severe weather prediction and alerting. Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) provides the capability of detecting total lightning data efficiently on a continental scale which has enabled development derivatives such as: A realtime lightning cell tracking program to identify and track the properties, speed and direction of storm cells with associated lightning flash rate and proprietary advanced alerts. Applications of these lightning derivatives are used in numerous countries outside of the US and are of particular value in areas where radar and weather infrastructures are lacking or are in need of improvement. As high impact weather events increase on a global scale, the need for real-time information and alerting is critical. This presentation will provide an overview of the technologies and present case studies to show the relationships between the lightning activities and the severe weather. INTRODUCTION The lifecycle of a thunderstorm convection cell can be described by the classical tripole model, in which the main negative charge is located in the center of the cell, the main positive charge is in the cloud-top ice crystals, and a smaller positive charge is in the lower section of the cell, below the negative charge (Williams 1989). The initial electrification of the central and top parts may give rise to cloud flashes with intense enough charging producing ground lightning (Williams et al. 1989). Severe thunderstorms, which may generate high wind, hail and tornadoes have certain characteristics in the lightning flashes, such as high IC flash rates in the storm formation stage. Severe storms may have either exceptionally low negative CG flash rates, or have exceptionally high positive CG flash rates; the greater volume of strong updrafts during a severe thunderstorm