INVESTIGADORES
AVILA Eldo Edgardo
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Diurnal cycle of lightning activity over continental regions
Autor/es:
BÜRGESSER R.; CASTELLANO N.; NICORA M.G.; AVILA E. E.
Reunión:
Conferencia; XV International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity; 2014
Resumen:
Satellite and ground network observations of lightning flash distribution data are used to
examine the diurnal cycle of lightning activity over the tropical and subtropical regions of South America.
A harmonic analysis was used to study the spatial variations in the peak and strength of diurnal lightning
activity across this area. The results show that in the north and center regions of South America the time of
maxima lightning activity was concentrated in the late afternoon to evening hours (between 5:00 p.m. and
7:00 p.m. local time), which may be associated with the peaking of the local convective activity associated
with heating of the surface caused by daytime insolation. In the subtropical South America, particularly
the area limited by [-25°; -40°] of latitude and [-70°; -50°] of longitude, the time of maximum lightning
activity was shifted to nocturnal hours, extending from close to midnight to early morning hours. This
behavior can be associated to the peak in MCSs in the morning hours in the region. A close connection
between peak time of lightning activity and peak time of precipitation events have been observed by
comparing the current results with other published studies.