Electric atmospheric activity in Argentina, and a study for estimating the annual death rate by lightning

NICORA M.G.; BÜRGESSER R.; QUEL E.J.; AVILA E. E.

Belo Horizonte

Simposio; XII SIPDA, International Symposium on Lightning Protection; 2013

IEEE

The information about lightning activity is fundamental to atmospheric surveillance. Few countries in the world have their own lightning detection networks which allow monitoring the lightning activity inside their national borders. The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) provides global lightning data, which was already used to characterize the lightning activity in several regions of the world. The aim of the present work is the use of the lightning data obtained by the WWLLN to make an analysis on the lightning activity over Argentina between the years 2005-2012. Thus, isoceraunic maps of Argentina were performed and using the thunderstorm´s days data, a model to estimate deaths from lightning was performed. The model is based on the parameterizations of the flash density, population density and urbanization of a given region. The obtained results allow to promote protective behaviors in the population.