Lightning measurements from satellites and significance for storms in the mediterranean

Abstract

In this chapter we demonstrate how lightning can be measured from space, and how thunderstorm clouds can be identified and characterized by using combinations of satellite data. This is done over the Southern Mediterranean area using concurrent measurements taken by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), the Precipitation Radar (PR), and the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) space observatory. Modeling and observational studies indicate that cloud electrification and microphysics are very closely related. Using lightning data obtained from satellites, we can extract quantitative relationships between microphysical characteristics and lightning flash rates. This is of great interest for future work: for nowcasting of thunderstorms, and for introducing lightning observations into mesoscale forecast models. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.