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Abstract
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) experiences considerable space–time variability in temperature and precipitation, and this variability is expected to increase. The PPR is sensitive to this variability—it plays a large role in the water availability of the region. Thousands of wetlands in the region, sometimes containing ponds, provide habitats and breeding grounds for various species. Many wildlife management decisions are planned and executed on subseasonal-to-seasonal time scales and would benefit from knowledge of seasonal conditions at longer lead times. Therefore, it is important to understand potential driving mechanisms and teleconnections behind space–time climate variability in the PPR. We performed principal component analysis on summer precipitation of the southeastern PPR (SEPPR) to determine the leading principal components (PCs) of variability. These PCs were used to establish teleconnections to large-scale climate variables and indices. They were also used to determine potential mechanisms driving the precipitation variability. There were teleconnections to Pacific and Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures (SST) resembling the Pacific decadal oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation, low 500-hPa heights over the western United States, and the Palmer drought severity index over the SEPPR. A large-scale low pressure region over the northwestern United States and a pattern like the Great Plains low-level jet, observed in the 500- and 850-hPa heights and winds, are a potential mechanism of the precipitation variability by increasing precipitation during wet PC1 years. These findings can inform management actions to maintain and restore wildlife habitat and the resources used for those actions in the PPR.
Abstract
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) experiences considerable space–time variability in temperature and precipitation, and this variability is expected to increase. The PPR is sensitive to this variability—it plays a large role in the water availability of the region. Thousands of wetlands in the region, sometimes containing ponds, provide habitats and breeding grounds for various species. Many wildlife management decisions are planned and executed on subseasonal-to-seasonal time scales and would benefit from knowledge of seasonal conditions at longer lead times. Therefore, it is important to understand potential driving mechanisms and teleconnections behind space–time climate variability in the PPR. We performed principal component analysis on summer precipitation of the southeastern PPR (SEPPR) to determine the leading principal components (PCs) of variability. These PCs were used to establish teleconnections to large-scale climate variables and indices. They were also used to determine potential mechanisms driving the precipitation variability. There were teleconnections to Pacific and Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures (SST) resembling the Pacific decadal oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation, low 500-hPa heights over the western United States, and the Palmer drought severity index over the SEPPR. A large-scale low pressure region over the northwestern United States and a pattern like the Great Plains low-level jet, observed in the 500- and 850-hPa heights and winds, are a potential mechanism of the precipitation variability by increasing precipitation during wet PC1 years. These findings can inform management actions to maintain and restore wildlife habitat and the resources used for those actions in the PPR.
Abstract
Like many coastal communities throughout the mid-Atlantic region, relative sea level rise and accelerating instances of coastal nuisance flooding are having a tangible negative impact on economic activity and infrastructure in Annapolis, Maryland. The drivers of coastal nuisance flooding, in general, are a superposition of global, regional, and local influences that occur across spatial and temporal scales that determine water levels relative to a coastal datum. Most of the research to date related to coastal flooding has been focused on high-impact episodic events, decomposing the global and regional drivers of sea level rise, or assessing seasonal-to-interannual trends. In this study, we focus specifically on the role of short-duration (hours) meteorological wind forcing on water level anomalies in Annapolis. Annapolis is an ideal location to study these processes because of the orientation of the coast relative to the prevailing wind directions and the long record of reliable data observations. Our results suggest that 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-h sustained wind forcing significantly influences water level anomalies in Annapolis. Sustained wind forcing out of the northeast, east, southeast, and south is associated with positive water level anomalies, and sustained wind forcing out of the northwest and north is associated with negative water level anomalies. While these observational results suggest a relationship between sustained wind forcing and water level anomalies, a more robust approach is needed to account for other meteorological variables and drivers that occur across a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
Significance Statement
Coastal nuisance flooding, often the result of positive water level anomalies, is having a negative economic impact in Annapolis, Maryland. Coastal flooding research has primarily focused on high-impact episodic events, trends in sea level rise, or seasonal to interannual variability in flooding. In this study we show that short-duration wind forcing (≤12 h) likely has a significant impact on both positive and negative water level anomalies in Annapolis. While this was empirically known by local stakeholders, in this study we attempt to quantify the relationship. These results could help local stakeholders to mitigate against economic and infrastructure losses resulting from coastal nuisance flooding.
Abstract
Like many coastal communities throughout the mid-Atlantic region, relative sea level rise and accelerating instances of coastal nuisance flooding are having a tangible negative impact on economic activity and infrastructure in Annapolis, Maryland. The drivers of coastal nuisance flooding, in general, are a superposition of global, regional, and local influences that occur across spatial and temporal scales that determine water levels relative to a coastal datum. Most of the research to date related to coastal flooding has been focused on high-impact episodic events, decomposing the global and regional drivers of sea level rise, or assessing seasonal-to-interannual trends. In this study, we focus specifically on the role of short-duration (hours) meteorological wind forcing on water level anomalies in Annapolis. Annapolis is an ideal location to study these processes because of the orientation of the coast relative to the prevailing wind directions and the long record of reliable data observations. Our results suggest that 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-h sustained wind forcing significantly influences water level anomalies in Annapolis. Sustained wind forcing out of the northeast, east, southeast, and south is associated with positive water level anomalies, and sustained wind forcing out of the northwest and north is associated with negative water level anomalies. While these observational results suggest a relationship between sustained wind forcing and water level anomalies, a more robust approach is needed to account for other meteorological variables and drivers that occur across a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
Significance Statement
Coastal nuisance flooding, often the result of positive water level anomalies, is having a negative economic impact in Annapolis, Maryland. Coastal flooding research has primarily focused on high-impact episodic events, trends in sea level rise, or seasonal to interannual variability in flooding. In this study we show that short-duration wind forcing (≤12 h) likely has a significant impact on both positive and negative water level anomalies in Annapolis. While this was empirically known by local stakeholders, in this study we attempt to quantify the relationship. These results could help local stakeholders to mitigate against economic and infrastructure losses resulting from coastal nuisance flooding.
Abstract
Assessment of temporal trends in vegetation greenness and related influences aids understanding of recent changes in terrestrial ecosystems and feedbacks from weather, climate, and environment. We analyzed 1-km normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series data (1989–2016) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and developed growing-season time-integrated NDVI (GS-TIN) for estimating seasonal vegetation activity across stable natural land cover in the conterminous United States (CONUS). After removing areas from analysis that had experienced land-cover conversion or modification, we conducted a monotonic trend analysis on the GS-TIN time series and found that significant positive temporal trends occurred over 35% of the area, whereas significant negative trends were observed over only 3.5%. Positive trends were prevalent in the forested lands of the eastern one-third of CONUS and far northwest, as well as in grasslands in the north-central plains. We observed negative and nonsignificant trends mainly in the shrublands and grasslands across the northwest, southwest, and west-central plains. To understand the relationship of climate variability with these temporal trends, we conducted partial and multiple correlation analyses on GS-TIN, growing-season temperature, and water-year precipitation time series. The GS-TIN trends in northern forests were positively correlated with temperature. The GS-TIN trends in the central and western shrublands and grasslands were negatively correlated with temperature and positively correlated with precipitation. Our results revealed spatial patterns in vegetation greenness trends for different stable natural vegetation types across CONUS, enhancing understanding gained from prior studies that were based on coarser 8-km AVHRR data.
Significance Statement
Assessing vegetation trends, cycles, and related influences is important for understanding the responses and feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to climatic and environmental changes. We analyzed vegetation greenness trends (1989–2016) for stable natural land cover across the conterminous United States, based on vegetation index time series derived from coarse-resolution optical satellite sensors. We found greening trends in the forests of the east and far northwest and the grasslands of the northern central plains that correlated with increasing temperature in the regions. We observed browning and no trends mainly in the shrublands and grasslands across the northwest, southwest, and western central plains, associated with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. Future research should focus on vegetation greenness analysis using finer-resolution satellite data.
Abstract
Assessment of temporal trends in vegetation greenness and related influences aids understanding of recent changes in terrestrial ecosystems and feedbacks from weather, climate, and environment. We analyzed 1-km normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series data (1989–2016) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and developed growing-season time-integrated NDVI (GS-TIN) for estimating seasonal vegetation activity across stable natural land cover in the conterminous United States (CONUS). After removing areas from analysis that had experienced land-cover conversion or modification, we conducted a monotonic trend analysis on the GS-TIN time series and found that significant positive temporal trends occurred over 35% of the area, whereas significant negative trends were observed over only 3.5%. Positive trends were prevalent in the forested lands of the eastern one-third of CONUS and far northwest, as well as in grasslands in the north-central plains. We observed negative and nonsignificant trends mainly in the shrublands and grasslands across the northwest, southwest, and west-central plains. To understand the relationship of climate variability with these temporal trends, we conducted partial and multiple correlation analyses on GS-TIN, growing-season temperature, and water-year precipitation time series. The GS-TIN trends in northern forests were positively correlated with temperature. The GS-TIN trends in the central and western shrublands and grasslands were negatively correlated with temperature and positively correlated with precipitation. Our results revealed spatial patterns in vegetation greenness trends for different stable natural vegetation types across CONUS, enhancing understanding gained from prior studies that were based on coarser 8-km AVHRR data.
Significance Statement
Assessing vegetation trends, cycles, and related influences is important for understanding the responses and feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to climatic and environmental changes. We analyzed vegetation greenness trends (1989–2016) for stable natural land cover across the conterminous United States, based on vegetation index time series derived from coarse-resolution optical satellite sensors. We found greening trends in the forests of the east and far northwest and the grasslands of the northern central plains that correlated with increasing temperature in the regions. We observed browning and no trends mainly in the shrublands and grasslands across the northwest, southwest, and western central plains, associated with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. Future research should focus on vegetation greenness analysis using finer-resolution satellite data.
Abstract
Low-level jets are a recurrent feature of our study area in Ipero municipality of southeastern Brazil. They grow very near the surface as shown by this case study. These two aspects increase the needs for a realistic modeling of the low-level jet to simulate the atmospheric dispersion of industrial emissions. In this concern, we applied a recently proposed technique to estimate the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate of a low-level jet case with Doppler lidar data. This low-level jet remained for its entire lifetime (around 12 h) within a shallow layer (under 300 m); beyond this, we did not notice a remarkable directional shear as in other studies. Even for a shallow layer as for this study case, we observed strong spatiotemporal variability of the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate. We also detected a channel connecting the layers above and below the low-level jet that may be an exchange channel of their properties.
Abstract
Low-level jets are a recurrent feature of our study area in Ipero municipality of southeastern Brazil. They grow very near the surface as shown by this case study. These two aspects increase the needs for a realistic modeling of the low-level jet to simulate the atmospheric dispersion of industrial emissions. In this concern, we applied a recently proposed technique to estimate the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate of a low-level jet case with Doppler lidar data. This low-level jet remained for its entire lifetime (around 12 h) within a shallow layer (under 300 m); beyond this, we did not notice a remarkable directional shear as in other studies. Even for a shallow layer as for this study case, we observed strong spatiotemporal variability of the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate. We also detected a channel connecting the layers above and below the low-level jet that may be an exchange channel of their properties.
Abstract
The major tributary of the lower Colorado River, the Gila River, is a critical source of water for human and natural environments in the southwestern United States. Warmer and drier than the upper Colorado River basin, with less snow and a bimodal precipitation regime, the Gila River is controlled by a set of climatic conditions that is different from the controls on upper Colorado River flow. Unlike the Colorado River at Lees Ferry in Arizona, the upper Gila River and major Gila River tributaries, the Salt and Verde Rivers, do not yet reflect significant declines in annual streamflow, despite warming trends. Annual streamflow is dominated by cool-season precipitation, but the monsoon influence is discernable as well, variable across the basin and complicated by an inverse relationship with cool-season precipitation in the Salt and Verde River basins. Major multiyear streamflow droughts in these two basins have frequently been accompanied by wet monsoons, suggesting that monsoon precipitation may partially offset the impacts of a dry cool season. While statistically significant trends in annual streamflow are not evident, decreases in autumn and spring streamflow reflect warming temperatures and some decreases in spring precipitation. Because climatic controls vary with topography and the influence of the monsoon, the impact of warming on streamflow in the three subbasins is somewhat variable. However, given relationships between climate and streamflow, current trends in hydroclimate, and projections for the future, it would be prudent to expect declines in Gila River water supplies in the coming decades.
Significance Statement
This research investigates the climatic controls on the Gila River and its major tributaries, the Verde and Salt Rivers, to gain insights on how trends in climate may impact future water supply. The Gila River is the major tributary of the lower Colorado River, but, unlike the situation for the upper Colorado River, no significant decreasing trends in annual streamflow are evident despite warming temperatures. Climate–streamflow relationships are more complex in this part of the Colorado River basin, and several factors may be buffering streamflow to the impact of warming. However, given the key climatic controls on streamflow, current and emerging trends in climate, and projections for the future, declines in streamflow should be expected in the future.
Abstract
The major tributary of the lower Colorado River, the Gila River, is a critical source of water for human and natural environments in the southwestern United States. Warmer and drier than the upper Colorado River basin, with less snow and a bimodal precipitation regime, the Gila River is controlled by a set of climatic conditions that is different from the controls on upper Colorado River flow. Unlike the Colorado River at Lees Ferry in Arizona, the upper Gila River and major Gila River tributaries, the Salt and Verde Rivers, do not yet reflect significant declines in annual streamflow, despite warming trends. Annual streamflow is dominated by cool-season precipitation, but the monsoon influence is discernable as well, variable across the basin and complicated by an inverse relationship with cool-season precipitation in the Salt and Verde River basins. Major multiyear streamflow droughts in these two basins have frequently been accompanied by wet monsoons, suggesting that monsoon precipitation may partially offset the impacts of a dry cool season. While statistically significant trends in annual streamflow are not evident, decreases in autumn and spring streamflow reflect warming temperatures and some decreases in spring precipitation. Because climatic controls vary with topography and the influence of the monsoon, the impact of warming on streamflow in the three subbasins is somewhat variable. However, given relationships between climate and streamflow, current trends in hydroclimate, and projections for the future, it would be prudent to expect declines in Gila River water supplies in the coming decades.
Significance Statement
This research investigates the climatic controls on the Gila River and its major tributaries, the Verde and Salt Rivers, to gain insights on how trends in climate may impact future water supply. The Gila River is the major tributary of the lower Colorado River, but, unlike the situation for the upper Colorado River, no significant decreasing trends in annual streamflow are evident despite warming temperatures. Climate–streamflow relationships are more complex in this part of the Colorado River basin, and several factors may be buffering streamflow to the impact of warming. However, given the key climatic controls on streamflow, current and emerging trends in climate, and projections for the future, declines in streamflow should be expected in the future.
Abstract
It has been 10 years since the start of the Syrian uprisings. While relative stability is improving overall, a new disaster, wildfires, impacted an already food-insecure population by burning through key production areas, damaging crops, soil, and livestock and causing air quality to deteriorate. As observed with remotely sensed data, fire affected 4.8% of Syria in 2019, as compared with the average 0.2%, and most fires were observed within agricultural land in the northeast. Abnormal amounts of rainfall during the 2019 growing season and, consequently, high soil moisture explained about 62% of the drastic increase in the burned area extent. In contrast, in 2020, fires continued despite the average amount of rainfall. Extremely high temperature could partially explain a 10-fold increase in the extent of burned area in 2020 but only within forested regions in the northwest. We argue that the abrupt changes in Syria’s fire activity were driven by the complex interactions among conflict, migration, land use, and climate. On one side, the ongoing conflict leads to a drastic increase in the number of accidental and deliberate fires and reduced capacity for fire response. On the other side, years of insecurity, widespread displacement, and economic instability left no choice for locals other than exploiting fires to remove natural vegetation for expanding farming, logging, and charcoal trading. The loss of agricultural production and natural vegetation to fire can have serious implications for food security, soil property, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, which can further exacerbate the already unstable economy and make ongoing violence even more intense.
Abstract
It has been 10 years since the start of the Syrian uprisings. While relative stability is improving overall, a new disaster, wildfires, impacted an already food-insecure population by burning through key production areas, damaging crops, soil, and livestock and causing air quality to deteriorate. As observed with remotely sensed data, fire affected 4.8% of Syria in 2019, as compared with the average 0.2%, and most fires were observed within agricultural land in the northeast. Abnormal amounts of rainfall during the 2019 growing season and, consequently, high soil moisture explained about 62% of the drastic increase in the burned area extent. In contrast, in 2020, fires continued despite the average amount of rainfall. Extremely high temperature could partially explain a 10-fold increase in the extent of burned area in 2020 but only within forested regions in the northwest. We argue that the abrupt changes in Syria’s fire activity were driven by the complex interactions among conflict, migration, land use, and climate. On one side, the ongoing conflict leads to a drastic increase in the number of accidental and deliberate fires and reduced capacity for fire response. On the other side, years of insecurity, widespread displacement, and economic instability left no choice for locals other than exploiting fires to remove natural vegetation for expanding farming, logging, and charcoal trading. The loss of agricultural production and natural vegetation to fire can have serious implications for food security, soil property, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, which can further exacerbate the already unstable economy and make ongoing violence even more intense.
Abstract
Cropland abandonment has been a major land-use concern, threatening food security globally. Understanding the factors contributing to cropland abandonment advances land-use change science and provides essential information for policy making, both of which aim to improve agriculture land management. Despite many studies conducted on this topic, we still lack in-depth understanding on how feedbacks from the natural system influence cropland-use decisions at the household level in the human system. We fill this knowledge gap by conducting this study in the Middle Hills of Nepal, where community forestry is an integral part of the land-use system. We collected qualitative data through focus-group discussions, key-informant interviews, and review of local community-forest management documents, and we collected quantitative socioeconomic data through a household survey of 415 households. We geolocated 1264 cropland parcels owned by these households and recorded their use statuses. We found that there is an increasing trend of cropland abandonment that is due to multiple socioeconomic, ecological, and biophysical factors. A higher likelihood of cropland abandonment is linked to households that have more out-migrants, female heads, nonagricultural occupation of the household heads, and larger areas of agriculture landholding. The study also found that cropland parcels that are far from the households, close to the forest edge, and on steeper slopes are more likely to be abandoned. These findings provide key information for policy makers to devise effective measures on managing cropland and developing sustainable agriculture in rural Nepal.
Abstract
Cropland abandonment has been a major land-use concern, threatening food security globally. Understanding the factors contributing to cropland abandonment advances land-use change science and provides essential information for policy making, both of which aim to improve agriculture land management. Despite many studies conducted on this topic, we still lack in-depth understanding on how feedbacks from the natural system influence cropland-use decisions at the household level in the human system. We fill this knowledge gap by conducting this study in the Middle Hills of Nepal, where community forestry is an integral part of the land-use system. We collected qualitative data through focus-group discussions, key-informant interviews, and review of local community-forest management documents, and we collected quantitative socioeconomic data through a household survey of 415 households. We geolocated 1264 cropland parcels owned by these households and recorded their use statuses. We found that there is an increasing trend of cropland abandonment that is due to multiple socioeconomic, ecological, and biophysical factors. A higher likelihood of cropland abandonment is linked to households that have more out-migrants, female heads, nonagricultural occupation of the household heads, and larger areas of agriculture landholding. The study also found that cropland parcels that are far from the households, close to the forest edge, and on steeper slopes are more likely to be abandoned. These findings provide key information for policy makers to devise effective measures on managing cropland and developing sustainable agriculture in rural Nepal.
Abstract
Satellite and reanalysis products are used to study the atmospheric environment, aerosols, and trace gases in smoke plumes over South America in the period 2000–18. Climatic conditions and fire density maps provide context to link biomass burning across the southern Amazon region (5°–15°S, 50°–70°W) to thick near-surface plumes of trace gases and fine aerosols. Intraseasonal weather patterns that underpin greater fire emissions in the dry season (July–October) are exacerbated by high pressure over a cool eastern Pacific Ocean, for example in September 2007. Smoke-plume dispersion simulated with HYSPLIT reveals a slowing of westward transport between sources in eastern Brazil and the Andes Mountains. During cases of thick smoke plumes over southern Amazon, an upper ridge and sinking motions confine trace gases and fine aerosols below 4 km. Long-term warming, which tends to coincide with the zone of biomass burning, is +0.03°C yr−1 in the air and +0.1°C yr−1 at the land surface. Our study suggests that weather conditions promoting fire emissions also tend to limit dispersion.
Abstract
Satellite and reanalysis products are used to study the atmospheric environment, aerosols, and trace gases in smoke plumes over South America in the period 2000–18. Climatic conditions and fire density maps provide context to link biomass burning across the southern Amazon region (5°–15°S, 50°–70°W) to thick near-surface plumes of trace gases and fine aerosols. Intraseasonal weather patterns that underpin greater fire emissions in the dry season (July–October) are exacerbated by high pressure over a cool eastern Pacific Ocean, for example in September 2007. Smoke-plume dispersion simulated with HYSPLIT reveals a slowing of westward transport between sources in eastern Brazil and the Andes Mountains. During cases of thick smoke plumes over southern Amazon, an upper ridge and sinking motions confine trace gases and fine aerosols below 4 km. Long-term warming, which tends to coincide with the zone of biomass burning, is +0.03°C yr−1 in the air and +0.1°C yr−1 at the land surface. Our study suggests that weather conditions promoting fire emissions also tend to limit dispersion.
Abstract
Season-to-season persistence of soil moisture drought varies across North America. Such interseasonal autocorrelation can have modest skill in forecasting future conditions several months in advance. Because robust instrumental observations of precipitation span less than 100 years, the temporal stability of the relationship between seasonal moisture anomalies is uncertain. The North American Seasonal Precipitation Atlas (NASPA) is a gridded network of separately reconstructed cool-season (December–April) and warm-season (May–July) precipitation series and offers new insights on the intra-annual changes in drought for up to 2000 years. Here, the NASPA precipitation reconstructions are rescaled to represent the long-term soil moisture balance during the cool season and 3-month-long atmospheric moisture during the warm season. These rescaled seasonal reconstructions are then used to quantify the frequency, magnitude, and spatial extent of cool-season drought that was relieved or reversed during the following summer months. The adjusted seasonal reconstructions reproduce the general patterns of large-scale drought amelioration and termination in the instrumental record during the twentieth century and are used to estimate relief and reversals for the most skillfully reconstructed past 500 years. Subcontinental-to-continental-scale reversals of cool-season drought in the following warm season have been rare, but the reconstructions display periods prior to the instrumental data of increased reversal probabilities for the mid-Atlantic region and the U.S. Southwest. Drought relief at the continental scale may arise in part from macroscale ocean–atmosphere processes, whereas the smaller-scale regional reversals may reflect land surface feedbacks and stochastic variability.
Abstract
Season-to-season persistence of soil moisture drought varies across North America. Such interseasonal autocorrelation can have modest skill in forecasting future conditions several months in advance. Because robust instrumental observations of precipitation span less than 100 years, the temporal stability of the relationship between seasonal moisture anomalies is uncertain. The North American Seasonal Precipitation Atlas (NASPA) is a gridded network of separately reconstructed cool-season (December–April) and warm-season (May–July) precipitation series and offers new insights on the intra-annual changes in drought for up to 2000 years. Here, the NASPA precipitation reconstructions are rescaled to represent the long-term soil moisture balance during the cool season and 3-month-long atmospheric moisture during the warm season. These rescaled seasonal reconstructions are then used to quantify the frequency, magnitude, and spatial extent of cool-season drought that was relieved or reversed during the following summer months. The adjusted seasonal reconstructions reproduce the general patterns of large-scale drought amelioration and termination in the instrumental record during the twentieth century and are used to estimate relief and reversals for the most skillfully reconstructed past 500 years. Subcontinental-to-continental-scale reversals of cool-season drought in the following warm season have been rare, but the reconstructions display periods prior to the instrumental data of increased reversal probabilities for the mid-Atlantic region and the U.S. Southwest. Drought relief at the continental scale may arise in part from macroscale ocean–atmosphere processes, whereas the smaller-scale regional reversals may reflect land surface feedbacks and stochastic variability.
Abstract
Lightning megaflashes extending over >100-km distances have been observed by the Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on NOAA’s R-series Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). The hazards posed by megaflashes are unclear, however, because of limitations in the GLM data. We address these by reprocessing GOES-16 GLM measurements from 1 January 2018 to 15 January 2020 and integrating them with Earth Networks Global Lightning Network (ENGLN) observations. ENGLN verified 194 880 GLM megaflashes as natural lightning. Of these, 127 479 flashes occurred following the October 2018 GLM software update that standardized GLM timing. Reprocessed GLM/ENGLN lightning maps from these postupdate cases provide a comprehensive view of how individual megaflashes evolve. This megaflash dataset is used to generate statistics that describe their hazards. The average megaflash produces 5–7 cloud-to-ground (CG) strokes that are spread across 40%–50% of the flash extent. As flash extent increases beyond 100 km, megaflashes become concentrated in key hot-spot regions in North and South America while the number of CG and intracloud events per flash and the overall peak current increase. CGs in the larger megaflashes occur over 80% of the flash extent measured by GLM, and the majority contain regions where the megaflash is the only lightning activity in the preceding hour. These statistics demonstrate that there is no safe location below an electrified cloud that is producing megaflashes, and current lightning safety guidance is not always sufficient to mitigate megaflash hazards.
Abstract
Lightning megaflashes extending over >100-km distances have been observed by the Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on NOAA’s R-series Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). The hazards posed by megaflashes are unclear, however, because of limitations in the GLM data. We address these by reprocessing GOES-16 GLM measurements from 1 January 2018 to 15 January 2020 and integrating them with Earth Networks Global Lightning Network (ENGLN) observations. ENGLN verified 194 880 GLM megaflashes as natural lightning. Of these, 127 479 flashes occurred following the October 2018 GLM software update that standardized GLM timing. Reprocessed GLM/ENGLN lightning maps from these postupdate cases provide a comprehensive view of how individual megaflashes evolve. This megaflash dataset is used to generate statistics that describe their hazards. The average megaflash produces 5–7 cloud-to-ground (CG) strokes that are spread across 40%–50% of the flash extent. As flash extent increases beyond 100 km, megaflashes become concentrated in key hot-spot regions in North and South America while the number of CG and intracloud events per flash and the overall peak current increase. CGs in the larger megaflashes occur over 80% of the flash extent measured by GLM, and the majority contain regions where the megaflash is the only lightning activity in the preceding hour. These statistics demonstrate that there is no safe location below an electrified cloud that is producing megaflashes, and current lightning safety guidance is not always sufficient to mitigate megaflash hazards.
