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The Kinematic and Microphysical Control of Lightning Rate, Extent and NOX ProductionThe Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) experiment seeks to quantify the relationship between storm physics, lightning characteristics and the production of nitrogen oxides via lightning (LNOx). The focus of this study is to investigate the kinematic and microphysical control of lightning properties, particularly those that may govern LNOx production, such as flash rate, type and extent across Alabama during DC3. Prior studies have demonstrated that lightning flash rate and type is correlated to kinematic and microphysical properties in the mixed-phase region of thunderstorms such as updraft volume and graupel mass. More study is required to generalize these relationships in a wide variety of storm modes and meteorological conditions. Less is known about the co-evolving relationship between storm physics, morphology and three-dimensional flash extent, despite its importance for LNOx production. To address this conceptual gap, the NASA Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM) is applied to North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (NALMA) and Vaisala National Lightning Detection Network(TM) (NLDN) observations following ordinary convective cells through their lifecycle. LNOM provides estimates of flash rate, flash type, channel length distributions, lightning segment altitude distributions (SADs) and lightning NOx production profiles. For this study, LNOM is applied in a Lagrangian sense to multicell thunderstorms over Northern Alabama on two days during DC3 (21 May and 11 June 2012) in which aircraft observations of NOx are available for comparison. The LNOM lightning characteristics and LNOX production estimates are compared to the evolution of updraft and precipitation properties inferred from dual-Doppler and polarimetric radar analyses applied to observations from a nearby radar network, including the UAH Advanced Radar for Meteorological and Operational Research (ARMOR). Given complex multicell evolution, particular attention is paid to storm morphology, cell mergers and possible dynamical, microphysical and electrical interaction of individual cells when testing various hypotheses.
Document ID
20140011605
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Carey, Lawrence (Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Koshak, William (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Peterson, Harold (Universities Space Research Association Huntsville, AL, United States)
Matthee, Retha (Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Bain, A. Lamont (Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
September 12, 2014
Publication Date
June 15, 2014
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
M13-3107
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity (ICAE 2014)
Location: Norman, OK
Country: United States
Start Date: June 14, 2014
End Date: June 19, 2014
Sponsors: National Severe Storms Lab., Oklahoma Univ.
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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