Convective Properties and Lightning Activity in Different Categories of Thunderstorms over the Beijing Area during Five Warm Seasons

Based on comprehensive observations, including total lightning, Doppler radar, precipitation, and other meteorological data, the variations in thunderstorm properties and lightning activity of different categories for thunderstorms over the Beijing area during five warm seasons were investigated. Ac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2024-01, Vol.16 (3), p.447
Main Authors: Liu, Dongxia, Yu, Han, Sun, Zhuling, Zhang, Hongbo, Wang, Dongfang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
BLNET
Case studies
Categories
China
Convection
Convective precipitation
convective properties
Doppler radar
Dynamic meteorology
Electric fields
Lightning
lightning activity
Meteorological data
Mountains
Potential energy
Precipitation
Precipitation (Meteorology)
Radar
Radar echoes
Radar meteorology
Radiation
Storms
thunderstorm classification
Thunderstorms
Weather
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Summary:Based on comprehensive observations, including total lightning, Doppler radar, precipitation, and other meteorological data, the variations in thunderstorm properties and lightning activity of different categories for thunderstorms over the Beijing area during five warm seasons were investigated. According to the morphology of radar echo, thunderstorms were classified into five categories, including single convective cells, multi-cells, linear mesoscale convective system (MCS), nonlinear MCS, and weak convective precipitation system (WCPS). The diurnal variability of lightning, thunderstorm occurrence, and precipitation showed late-afternoon maxima, with the peak time of lightning frequency occurring before that of precipitation. Despite WCPS having the lowest lightning frequency, the percentage of +CG/CG was the highest with large peak currents. The convective available potential energy (CAPE) of linear MCS, multi-cells, nonlinear MCS, single cells, and WCPS categories followed a pattern from largest to smallest. Meanwhile, warm cloud depth (WCD) exhibited a smaller value in the well-organized thunderstorm categories and a larger value in the WCPS. The topographic forcing mechanism and large wind gradient along mountain slopes facilitated convection occurrence and enhancement, further promoting lightning production. Meanwhile, the nocturnal convection mechanism significantly impacted the activity of nonlinear MCS and WCPS.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs16030447