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Satellite observations of spatial and interannual variability of lightning and radar reflectivity
Author(s) -
Durden S. L.,
Meagher J. P.,
Haddad Z. S.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl020384
Subject(s) - empirical orthogonal functions , lightning (connector) , anomaly (physics) , satellite , reflectivity , geology , radar , principal component analysis , remote sensing , meteorology , climatology , precipitation , environmental science , geography , physics , optics , telecommunications , mathematics , statistics , condensed matter physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , computer science , power (physics)
The authors use satellite data to examine the relationship between lightning and upper‐level radar reflectivity. They find correlations between average flash rates and upper‐level reflectivities over both land and ocean, although both flash rates and reflectivities are much lower over ocean than land. Analysis of the data using Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) shows similar EOFs for averaged lightning and reflectivity. In contrast, the EOFs of the anomalies of lightning and reflectivity have different spatial patterns; however, both have principal component time series that are correlated with the Southern Oscillation Index and, hence, El Niño. Differences in behavior of the lightning and reflectivity anomaly EOFs and principal components suggest that El Niño plays a smaller role in lightning anomaly than precipitation anomaly.