Isoceraunic Maps of Argentina Using Lightning Data Detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network

M. G: NICORA; R.E. BÜRGESSER; J. O. SALVADOR; E. A. WOLFRAM; E. E. AVILA; E. J. QUEL

Rio de Janeiro

Conferencia; XIV International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity; 2011

The information about lightning activity is fundamental to atmospheric surveillance due its relevant applications on different aspect as security, defense, early warning system and for generation of statistic data for planning infrastructure project. Few countries in the world have their own lightning detection network which allows monitoring the lightning activity inside their national border. Other systems which provide lightning data are the satellite detection systems like the Lightning Imaging Sensor but, despite its high detection efficiency, these systems do not provide continuous time coverage. The development of the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) could provide a confidence global lightning data with low cost. The aim of the present work is the use of the lightning data obtained by the WWLL Network during 2005-2010 to make an analysis on the lightning activity over Argentina and to evaluate the performance of the network. In order to achieve this objective the isoceraunic maps of Argentina were made. These maps show important similarities with the maps provided by the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN, Meteorological Office), which were made with data of the past decades. There are some differences between the maps, mainly in the Northwest and Patagonia regions. Nevertheless, these differences seem to be due to the lack of coverage of SMN. The results show that, despite the low detection efficiency of the WWLLN, this network provides reliable data which could be used for the analysis of the lightning activity in regions where there are not coverage of other lightning detection systems.