Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area
To investigate the possible impact of urban development on lightning activity, an eight-year (2010–2017) cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning dataset provided by the National-Wide Lightning Detection Network in China was analyzed to characterize the CG lightning activity in the metropolitan area of Beijin...
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1228 |
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doaj-65aa1a3e9e274f63bf21b33fb4b7507a2021-03-25T00:00:47ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-03-01131228122810.3390/rs13071228Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan AreaYongping Wang0Gaopeng Lu1Tao Shi2Ming Ma3Baoyou Zhu4Dongxia Liu5Changzhi Peng6Yu Wang7School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, ChinaSchool of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, ChinaSchool of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, ChinaSchool of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, ChinaSchool of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000, ChinaInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100000, ChinaSchool of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430000, ChinaState Grid Electric Power Research Institute, Wuhan 430074, ChinaTo investigate the possible impact of urban development on lightning activity, an eight-year (2010–2017) cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning dataset provided by the National-Wide Lightning Detection Network in China was analyzed to characterize the CG lightning activity in the metropolitan area of Beijing. There is a high CG flash density area over the downtown of Beijing, but different from previous studies, the downwind area of Beijing is not significantly enhanced. Compared with the upwind area, the CG flash density in the downtown area was enhanced by about 50%. Negative CG flashes mainly occurred in the downtown and industrial area, while positive CG flashes were distributed evenly. The percentage of positive CG flashes with I<sub>peak</sub> ≥ 75 kA is more than six times that of the corresponding negative CG flashes in the Beijing area. The enhancement of lightning activity varies with season and time. About 98% of CG flashes occurred from May to September, and the peak of CG diurnal variation is from 1900 to 2100 local time. Based on the analysis of thunderstorm types in Beijing, it is considered that the abnormal lightning activity is mainly responsible for an enhancement of the discharge number in frontal systems rather than the increase of the number of local thunderstorms. In addition, there is a non-linear relationship between pollutant concentrations and CG flash number, which indicates that there are other critical factors affecting the production of lightning.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1228cloud-to-ground lightningmegacityurban effectatmospheric pollutant |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Yongping Wang Gaopeng Lu Tao Shi Ming Ma Baoyou Zhu Dongxia Liu Changzhi Peng Yu Wang |
spellingShingle |
Yongping Wang Gaopeng Lu Tao Shi Ming Ma Baoyou Zhu Dongxia Liu Changzhi Peng Yu Wang Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area Remote Sensing cloud-to-ground lightning megacity urban effect atmospheric pollutant |
author_facet |
Yongping Wang Gaopeng Lu Tao Shi Ming Ma Baoyou Zhu Dongxia Liu Changzhi Peng Yu Wang |
author_sort |
Yongping Wang |
title |
Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area |
title_short |
Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area |
title_full |
Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area |
title_fullStr |
Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area |
title_full_unstemmed |
Enhancement of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity Caused by the Urban Effect: A Case Study in the Beijing Metropolitan Area |
title_sort |
enhancement of cloud-to-ground lightning activity caused by the urban effect: a case study in the beijing metropolitan area |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Remote Sensing |
issn |
2072-4292 |
publishDate |
2021-03-01 |
description |
To investigate the possible impact of urban development on lightning activity, an eight-year (2010–2017) cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning dataset provided by the National-Wide Lightning Detection Network in China was analyzed to characterize the CG lightning activity in the metropolitan area of Beijing. There is a high CG flash density area over the downtown of Beijing, but different from previous studies, the downwind area of Beijing is not significantly enhanced. Compared with the upwind area, the CG flash density in the downtown area was enhanced by about 50%. Negative CG flashes mainly occurred in the downtown and industrial area, while positive CG flashes were distributed evenly. The percentage of positive CG flashes with I<sub>peak</sub> ≥ 75 kA is more than six times that of the corresponding negative CG flashes in the Beijing area. The enhancement of lightning activity varies with season and time. About 98% of CG flashes occurred from May to September, and the peak of CG diurnal variation is from 1900 to 2100 local time. Based on the analysis of thunderstorm types in Beijing, it is considered that the abnormal lightning activity is mainly responsible for an enhancement of the discharge number in frontal systems rather than the increase of the number of local thunderstorms. In addition, there is a non-linear relationship between pollutant concentrations and CG flash number, which indicates that there are other critical factors affecting the production of lightning. |
topic |
cloud-to-ground lightning megacity urban effect atmospheric pollutant |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1228 |
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