Background: Lightning is one of the most mysterious phenomena of nature that also, it has caused many financial and human losses. In tropical and sub-tropical countries, death due to thunderbolt is not unusual, and even tragic events may occur at high altitudes. Lightning physics is complex and not completely clear. Usually, the clouds are heavily pregnant and high voltages and amperages, they ...

[1] We use the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), low‐frequency magnetic fields measured at Duke University, and storm intensity data (winds and central pressure) to examine the polarity and energetics of lightning within 100 km of the centers (inner core regions) of North Atlantic hurricanes Emily, Katrina, and Rita (2005). WWLLN provides the lightning locations. Polarities, peak c...

Pyrocumulus clouds above three Colorado wildfires (Hewlett Gulch, High Park, and Waldo Canyon; all during the summer of 2012) electrified and produced localized intracloud discharges whenever the smoke plumes grew above 10km MSL (approximately 2458C). Vertical development occurred during periods of rapid wildfire growth, as indicated by the shortwave infrared channel on a geostationary satellit...

A novel early streamer emission (ESE) lightning air terminal system is designed and fabricated. By comparing the intercepted artificial lightning striking numbers of the new ESE lightning protection device and the conventional lightning rod (CLR) lightning protection device in laboratory, the effectiveness of intercepting the artificial lightning strokes by the new ESE lightning protection devi...

Very low frequency (VLF) remote sensing observations of multifaceted local and conjugate ionospheric perturbations from geographically identified and well-characterized oceanic lightning discharges are presented for the first time. Lightning-induced electron precipitation (LEP) events are shown to produce disturbances first in the conjugate hemisphere and subsequently in the hemisphere of the c...

We quantify the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx) produced through lightning and photochemical processes in the Hadean atmosphere to be available in the Hadean ocean for the emergence of life. Atmospherically generated nitrate (NO3-) and nitrite (NO2-) are the most attractive high-potential electron acceptors for pulling and enabling crucial redox reactions of autotrophic metabolic pathways at su...

Cloud-to-ground lightning data from the National Lightning Data Network (NLDN), satellite visible and radar-derived products are used to train a lightning prediction algorithm. The radar reflectivity values are clustered to identify storm and real-time geometric, lagrangian and scalar attributes of those storms are computed. A lightning density field is ”precast” to form the target decision fie...

An experimental Very Low Frequency (VLF) World-Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) has been developed through collaborations with research institutions across the world, providing global real-time locations of lightning discharges. As of April 2006, the network included 25 stations providing coverage for much of the Earth. In this paper we examine the detection efficiency of the WWLLN by co...