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Advances in Atmospheric Electricity
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Advances in Atmospheric Electricity

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 35618

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, 18008 Granada, Spain
Interests: atmospheric electricity; numerical simulation; computational fluid dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alejandro Malagón-Romero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, 18008 Granada, Spain
Interests: atmospheric electricity; plasma physics; geophysics; electrical discharges

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The study of atmospheric electricity began around the time of Benjamin Franklin, when he carried out his investigations about the electricity in clouds. Since then, the physics and chemistry of lightning have been significantly investigated, while other atmospheric electricity phenomena, such as transient luminous events (TLEs) or terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), have been discovered. The increasing efforts to monitor the occurrence of atmospheric electricity phenomena from space or lightning-detection networks, the design of laboratory experiments of electrical discharges, and the development and improvement of computational models of electrical discharges help to expand our scientific knowledge of atmospheric electricity.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide recent advances in atmospheric electricity. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

* Relationships between meteorology and atmospheric electricity, including lightning.

* Remote sensing of atmospheric electricity phenomena.

* Now-casting and forecasting of thunderstorms.

* Thunderstorm dynamics and microphysics.

* Chemical role of atmospheric electricity in the atmosphere.

* Development of lightning detection networks and other instruments devoted to investigate atmospheric electricity.

* Modeling of thunderstorms, lightning, TLEs, and TGFs.

* Laboratory experiments of electrical discharges.

* High-energy radiation from thunderstorms.

* Lightning-ignited wildfires.

* Lightning and climate change.

Dr. Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón
Dr. Alejandro Malagón-Romero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • lightning
  • thunderstorms 
  • transient luminous events (TLE)
  • terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs)
  • atmospheric electricity
  • electrical discharges
  • lightning-detection networks

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 3715 KiB  
Article
The “Weekend Effect” in Lightning Activity during Winter Thunderstorms over the Tel-Aviv, Israel, Metropolitan Area
by Yoav Y. Yair, Barry H. Lynn, Menahem Korzets and Mordecai Jaffe
Atmosphere 2022, 13(10), 1570; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13101570 - 26 Sep 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2063
Abstract
We report the analysis of nine winter seasons (December, January, February (DJF)) aerosol and lightning data over the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area, Israel’s largest and densest urban region. Hourly averaged aerosol concentrations (PM2.5 and PM10) were obtained from 27 automatic air quality stations operated [...] Read more.
We report the analysis of nine winter seasons (December, January, February (DJF)) aerosol and lightning data over the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area, Israel’s largest and densest urban region. Hourly averaged aerosol concentrations (PM2.5 and PM10) were obtained from 27 automatic air quality stations operated by the Ministry for Environmental Protection. Lightning data obtained from the Israeli Lightning Detection Network (ILDN) and by the Earth Network Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) for four overlapping seasons showed an irregular pattern, with lower activity during Sunday–Tuesday, and maximum activity on Wednesday and Thursday, but also on Saturday, when less pollution was present. The accepted explanation for the weekend effect is that increased amounts of particles tend to prolong the lifetime of storms and their total lightning amounts and change their intracloud/cloud-to-ground flash ratios. However, our results suggest that lightning is not directly related to the level of ambient pollution, but likely depends on the synergistic effects of desert dust and urban pollution particles in the area that affect the electrical structure of winter thunderstorms. Since the source of desert dust is independent of any regularity that can be attributed to anthropogenic activity (e.g., increased levels of pollution due to the traffic-load in Tel-Aviv), it obscures any weekend–weekday patterns that are often detected in other large metropolitan areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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18 pages, 7249 KiB  
Article
Microphysical and Kinematic Characteristics of Anomalous Charge Structure Thunderstorms in Cordoba, Argentina
by Bruno Medina, Lawrence Carey, Wiebke Deierling and Timothy Lang
Atmosphere 2022, 13(8), 1329; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13081329 - 21 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2161
Abstract
Some thunderstorms in Cordoba, Argentina, present a charge structure with an enhanced low-level positive charge layer, and practically nonexistent upper-level positive charge. Storms with these characteristics are uncommon in the United States, even when considering regions with a high frequency of anomalous charge [...] Read more.
Some thunderstorms in Cordoba, Argentina, present a charge structure with an enhanced low-level positive charge layer, and practically nonexistent upper-level positive charge. Storms with these characteristics are uncommon in the United States, even when considering regions with a high frequency of anomalous charge structure storms such as Colorado. In this study, we explored the microphysical and kinematic conditions inferred by radar that led to storms with this unique low-level anomalous charge structure in Argentina, and compared them to conditions conducive for anomalous and normal charge structures. As high liquid water contents in the mixed-phase layer lead to positive charging of graupel and anomalous storms through the non-inductive charging mechanism, we explored radar parameters hypothesized to be associated with large cloud supercooled liquid water contents in the mixed-phase layer and anomalous storms, such as mass and volume of hail and high-density graupel, large reflectivity associated with the growth of rimed precipitation to hail size, and parameters that are proxies for strong updrafts such as echo-top and Zdr column heights. We found that anomalous storms had higher values of mass and volume of hail in multiple sub-layers of the mixed-phase zone and higher frequency of high reflectivity values. Low-level anomalous events had higher hail mass in the lower portion of the mixed-phase zone when compared to normal events. Weaker updraft proxies were found for low-level anomalous events due to the shallow nature of these events while there was no distinction between the updraft proxies of normal and anomalous storms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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16 pages, 3612 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Variability of Lightning Activity and Wildfires in Western Siberia during 2016–2021
by Elena Kharyutkina, Konstantin Pustovalov, Evgeniia Moraru and Olga Nechepurenko
Atmosphere 2022, 13(5), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13050669 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2323
Abstract
This research compares the spatial and temporal variability of lightning activity associated with wildfires in several natural geographical zones of Western Siberia from 2016–2021. The study was based on the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and The Fire Information for Resource Management [...] Read more.
This research compares the spatial and temporal variability of lightning activity associated with wildfires in several natural geographical zones of Western Siberia from 2016–2021. The study was based on the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) for the warm (April–October) season. It was revealed that areas of hotspots and lightning activity most often coincide in the southwestern part of the territory (near Khanty-Mansiysk and Tyumen), in the mountain regions (Kuznetsk Alatau, Altai), and in the northern part of Kazakhstan. Maximum values of lightning occur in July for the whole territory of Western Siberia, and maximum values of hotspots occur in April in the central and southern regions of Western Siberia. Despite the largest number of fires in the south of the territory, the probability of ignition from lightning over the whole warm season is higher in the northern parts of Western Siberia; it reaches up to 30%. Thus, the revealed lightning–fire association allows us to better understand this process in the region that will be useful in the prediction of the potential fire danger in different natural zones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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20 pages, 12535 KiB  
Article
The Electric Field of the Undisturbed Atmosphere in the South of Western Siberia: A Case Study on Tomsk
by Konstantin Pustovalov, Petr Nagorskiy, Mariya Oglezneva and Sergei Smirnov
Atmosphere 2022, 13(4), 614; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13040614 - 11 Apr 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2351
Abstract
Currently, many researchers have an interest in the investigation of the electric field in the fair-weather electric environment along with its diurnal and seasonal variations across all regions of the world. However, a similar study in the southern part of Western Siberia has [...] Read more.
Currently, many researchers have an interest in the investigation of the electric field in the fair-weather electric environment along with its diurnal and seasonal variations across all regions of the world. However, a similar study in the southern part of Western Siberia has not yet been carried out. In this regard, the paper aims to estimate the mean values of the electric field and their variations in this area using the example of Tomsk. The time series of one-minute average potential gradient values as well as other quantities obtained from the geophysical observatory of the Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMCES SB RAS, Tomsk, Russia) from 2006 to 2020 is used in this study. The mean annual value of the potential gradient in Tomsk is 282 V/m and usually varies from 161 to 372 V/m. The diurnal variations in potential gradient per year on average are characterized by oscillations of the continental type with a double maximum and minimum. The main minimum of diurnal variations is 7 h and the main maximum is 21 h of local time (00 and 14 UTC, respectively). According to the annual mode, the maximum potential gradient is observed in February, and the minimum is recorded in June. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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17 pages, 2033 KiB  
Article
Characteristics of Lightning Electromagnetic Fields Produced by Antarctica Storms
by Sulaiman Ali Mohammad, Mohd Riduan Ahmad, Mardina Abdullah, Park Sangjong, Shamsul Ammar Shamsul Baharin, Norbayah Yusop, Gaopeng Lu and Vernon Cooray
Atmosphere 2022, 13(4), 588; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13040588 - 6 Apr 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2753
Abstract
This paper presents the temporal characteristics of electromagnetic fields produced by cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes associated with Antarctica storms. A total of 51 positive CG (+CG) and 103 negative CG (−CG) flashes have been recorded by a magnetic direction finder (MDF) sensor in [...] Read more.
This paper presents the temporal characteristics of electromagnetic fields produced by cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes associated with Antarctica storms. A total of 51 positive CG (+CG) and 103 negative CG (−CG) flashes have been recorded by a magnetic direction finder (MDF) sensor in King Sejong Station, King George Island. In total, 47 positive and 107 negative return strokes were located, ranges from 32 to 569 km. All CG flashes were detected to occur over the ocean. The return strokes characteristics include the observations of slow front, fast rising, rise time, and pulse duration with geometric mean values of 3.2, 0.53, 3.21, 13.12, and 67.09 µs for +CG flashes, while 3.9, 0.57, 3.72, 20.75, and 69.86 µs for −CG flashes, respectively. Additionally, the average peak currents of +CG and −CG flashes were 4.13 kA and 3.14 kA, respectively. The temporal characteristics of the return strokes of Antarctica storms are comparable to other geographical regions. The smaller peak currents might be due to small magnitude of Antarctica cloud charges when compared to other geographical regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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11 pages, 26846 KiB  
Article
On the Use of Benford’s Law to Assess the Quality of the Data Provided by Lightning Locating Systems
by Ehsan Mansouri, Amirhosein Mostajabi, Wolfgang Schulz, Gerhard Diendorfer, Marcos Rubinstein and Farhad Rachidi
Atmosphere 2022, 13(4), 552; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13040552 - 30 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2000
Abstract
Lightning causes significant damage and casualties globally by directly striking humans and livestock, by igniting forest fires, and by inducing electrical surges in electronic infrastructure, airplanes, rockets, etc. Monitoring the evolution of thunderstorms by tracking lightning events using lightning locating systems can help [...] Read more.
Lightning causes significant damage and casualties globally by directly striking humans and livestock, by igniting forest fires, and by inducing electrical surges in electronic infrastructure, airplanes, rockets, etc. Monitoring the evolution of thunderstorms by tracking lightning events using lightning locating systems can help prepare for and mitigate these disasters. In this work, we propose to use Benford’s law to assess the quality of the data provided by lightning locating systems. The Jensen–Shannon and Wasserstein distances between the recorded data distribution and Benford’s distribution are used as metrics for measuring the performance of the lightning locating systems. The data are provided by the European lightning detection network (EUCLID) for the years from 2000 to 2020. The two decades consist of three time windows between which the lightning locating system underwent several upgrades to improve the detection of both positive and negative strokes. The analysis shows that the agreement with Benford’s law is consistent with the expected behavior caused by the applied upgrades to the system throughout the years. The study suggests that the proposed approach can be used to test the success of software and hardware upgrades and to monitor the performance of lightning locating systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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15 pages, 13769 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Observations of Schumann Resonances at Portishead (UK)
by Andrea Pizzuti, Alec Bennett and Martin Füllekrug
Atmosphere 2022, 13(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13010038 - 27 Dec 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 20029
Abstract
Constructive interference of lightning-generated signals in the extremely low frequency (ELF) below 100 Hz is the source of a global electromagnetic phenomenon in the Earth’s atmosphere known as Schumann Resonances (SR). SR are excited at frequencies of 7.8, 14, 20, 26, … Hz, [...] Read more.
Constructive interference of lightning-generated signals in the extremely low frequency (ELF) below 100 Hz is the source of a global electromagnetic phenomenon in the Earth’s atmosphere known as Schumann Resonances (SR). SR are excited at frequencies of 7.8, 14, 20, 26, … Hz, and their diurnal and seasonal intensity variations are largely dependent on changes in the location and magnitude of the major lightning centres in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. In the last five decades, extensive research has focused on reconstructing the spatial and temporal evolution in global lighting activity using SR measurements, and more recently on analysing the links to climate change, transient luminous events (TLE), and biological systems. In this study, a quasi-electrostatic antenna, primarily designed as a thunderstorm warning system, is for the first time applied to measure background variability in the SR band at an urban site in Southwest England. Data collected continuously from June 2015 for a 5-year period are suitably filtered and analysed showing that SR is the dominant contribution to the fair-weather displacement current measured by the sensor in the band 10–45 Hz. Diurnal and seasonal signal amplitude variations have been found to be consistent with previous studies and show the African-European lightning centre to prevail due to the shorter source-observer distance. Also, it is shown that long-term global changes in the ocean and land temperature, and the subsequent effect on the major lightning hotspots, may be responsible for the inter-annual variability of SR intensity, indicating that the largest increase occurred during the 2015–2016 super El-Niño episode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Atmospheric Electricity)
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