Studying Intense Tropical Cyclones Using the World Wide Lightning Location Network

摘要

Numerous previous studies have attempted to use have been only a few investigations of lightning activity generated by tropical cyclones. This is mainly because tropical cyclones are oceanic storms that occur away from land-based regional lightning networks. In this paper, we use the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), the only real-time network that covers the entire globe, and storm intensity data, to analyze the change in lightning activity during the evolution of intense tropical cyclones. We present preliminary case studies of the tropical cyclones from different regions, including the Atlantic basin Hurricane Rita (2005) and the western Pacific Super Typhoon Yagi (2006). We discuss where the lightning activity occurs, such as in the eyewall and rainband regions, during different stages of storm evolution. These case studies will be compared to the previous of work of Molinari et al., [1999] that suggest that eyewall lightning intensifies during eyewall replacement cycles during Atlantic basin hurricanes. From these case studies, we discuss whether monitoring lightning activity during tropical cyclones can lead to better forecasting and nowcasting of storm evolution, especially where aircrafts measurements are not typically feasible.