Typically, 50-70% of the total annual precipitation in New Mexico can be produced by convective thunderstorms during the period June through September. These thunderstorms are accompanied by intense lightning and characteristically produce heavy, localized rainfall resulting in high spatial variation in precipitation inputs. During other months precipitation over the entire Sevilleta ( lo5 ha) ...

[1] To characterize lightning processes that produce terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs), we have analyzed broadband (<1 Hz to 30 kHz) lightning magnetic fields for TGFs detected by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite in 2004–2009. The majority (96%) of 56 TGF‐associated lightning signals contain single or multiple VLF impulses superposed on a slow pulse...

Electric power utilities face increasing demand for service reliability. Since cloud-toground lightning strikes are among the most frequent yet least understood causes of service interruption, predicting the geographical and temporal distribution of the lightning strikes can help power system planners and designers improve the protection of new and existing transmission lines. Lightning is the ...

[1] Sprites are a spectacular type of transient luminous events which occur above thunderstorms immediately after lightning. They have shapes of giant jellyfish, carrots, or columns and last tens of milliseconds. In Earth’s atmosphere, sprites mostly emit in red and blue wavelengths from excited N2 and N2 + and span a vertical range between 50 and 90 km above the surface. The emission spectra, ...

Part I of this two-part paper treats Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) radar, passive microwave, and lightning observations in hurricanes individually. This paper (Part II) examines relationships between these parameters (and implications of the relationships). Quantitative relationships between lightning occurrence and 85-GHz brightness temperature, 37-GHz brightness temperature, and ...

During the summer of 2000, the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) program deployed a three-dimensional Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) near Goodland, Kansas. Video confirmation of sprites triggered by lightning within storms traversing the LMA domain were coordinated with extremely low frequency (ELF) transient measurements in Rhode Island and North Carolina. Two ...

There are a few national position stands/guidelines that address environmental conditions in athletics, yet they do not govern all outdoor sports. Extreme heat and cold, lightning, and severe wind can all be fatal, yet the majority of outdoor sports have no published guidelines addressing these conditions in relation to activity. Available research on extreme heat and cold conditions in athleti...

[1] The source of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) has been an active area of research since their discovery by Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory/Burst and Transient Source Experiment in 1994. These intense bursts of gamma rays originate within thunderclouds via the rapid production of relativistic runaway electrons, accelerated by thundercloud/lightning electric fields to multi-MeV energies. R...

Recently, three distinct archetypes for midlatitude linear mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) have been identified: those comprising convective lines with trailing stratiform precipitation (TS), leading stratiform precipitation (LS), and parallel stratiform precipitation (PS). While cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning in TS MCSs has received a great deal of study in recent years, linear MCSs exhibi...