Summary

International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility

2009

Session Number:24S2

Session:

Number:24S2-3

Lightning Distribution in Tropical Cyclones Observed by the TRMM/LIS

F. Nakano,  

pp.789-792

Publication Date:2009/7/20

Online ISSN:2188-5079

DOI:10.34385/proc.14.24S2-3

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Summary:
Typhoon is one of the severe weather phenomena which consists almost entirely of thunderstorms. However, the lightning activity in typhoon is a remarkable low compared to that in typical thunderstorms. It is important to know the feature of lightning flashes in typhoons to solve this problem. In this paper, we analyze the lightning data by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM) satellite in terms of the storm-relative and radial distribution, the seasonal variation, and the dependency on typhoon′s life stages (, namely the developing, the mature, and the dissipating stages). The lightning flashes in 218 typhoons from January 1998 to December 2007 were examined. Remarkable features of lightning flashes in typhoon are the following: (a) High flash rate regions in typhoons are most commonly found in the left side to the direction of storm motion. (b) A radial distribution of lightning flashes in the peak season (July-September) has two peaks. One appears in the outer rainband region and the other is in the eyewall region. (c) Most vigorous lightning activity occurred in the dissipating stage. These results suggested that the distribution of lightning flashes in peak season shows the typical pattern of lightning in typhoons.