Lightning is the energetic manifestation of electrical breakdown, occurring after charge separation processes operating on micro and macro-scales, leading to strong electric fields within thunderstorms. Lightning is associated with severe weather, torrential rains and flash floods. It has significant effects on various atmospheric layers and drives the fair-weather electric field.
This session seeks contributions from research in atmospheric electricity regarding cloud physics and lightning, meteorology of thunderstorms, lightning discharge physics, modeling of the electricity of thunderstorms, lightning and the global circuit, atmospheric chemical effects of lightning and lightning in relation with middle atmospheric transient luminous events. The session also welcomes contributions on lightning detection networks and sensors from ground and space, presenting results of global and local surveys, also considering future lightning patterns in an era of climate change and urban effects on lightning.
The real-time capabilities of present-day lightning detection systems provide a potential for using lightning data for now-casting and verification of weather forecasts. The session welcomes new ideas and practical methods for utilizing lightning data.