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- Title
Characterization of Thunderstorm Cells Producing Observable Terrestrial Gamma‐Ray Flashes.
- Authors
Husbjerg, Lasse Skaaning; Neubert, Torsten; Chanrion, Olivier; Marisaldi, Martino; Stendel, Martin; Kaas, Eigil; Østgaard, Nikolai; Reglero, Victor
- Abstract
The meteorological conditions required for the production of Terrestrial Gamma‐ray Flashes (TGFs) are not well understood. Particularly, the link between TGF production, meteorology, and weather severity is poorly characterized with most works focusing on only a small set of TGF events or isolated storms. This work is a further step toward understanding the general context of the meteorological conditions required for TGF production and if it differs from regular lightning production. We use TGFs observed from AGILE, ASIM, Fermi, and RHESSI to generate the largest catalog of TGFs with associated lightning sferics from either the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) or Global Lightning Detection (GLD) combined with geostationary satellite images and meteorological conditions derived from ERA5 reanalysis data. In total we analyze 1582 TGF events and contextualize them in comparison to lightning flashes as characterized by ASIM. In our analysis we consider the proportion of TGFs and lightning coming from systems with overshooting tops as well as the Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) and the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE). Our results are consistent with previous studies, finding that TGFs observed from space come from primarily higher cloud tops than regular lightning flashes do. We find that CAPE and the proportion of cells with overshooting tops is similar for both TGF and lightning producing cells. It suggests that TGF observations from space are biased toward systems with higher cloud tops because the attenuation of the gamma‐rays from lower altitude TGFs reduce their intensity below the detection level of LEO instruments. Plain Language Summary: Terrestrial Gamma‐ray Flashes (TGFs) are bursts of high energy radiation associated with only some lightning flashes. Here we seek to determine if the systems which generate TGFs are significantly different from those that generate only lightning flashes. While the general trend of TGF observations indicate that observable TGFs come from systems with higher cloud tops than other lightning, relatively little is understood about how the weather severity impacts the production of TGFs. To explore this we use geostationary satellite images and meteorological data to investigate the systems which generate TGFs compared to those that do not. We find that observed TGFs come from systems with higher cloud tops but not significantly more severe weather systems and that regional differences dominate over seasonal differences. It suggests that TGF observations from space are biased toward systems with higher cloud tops, because lower altitude TGFs cannot be detected from the space observatories. Key Points: Global analysis of TGF cloud characteristics combining AGILE, ASIM, Fermi and RHESSITGF producing cells are higher than lightning producing cells but otherwise their weather severity is similarRegional effects on the meteorological conditions for TGF production are more significant than seasonal effects
- Subjects
THUNDERSTORMS; METEOROLOGICAL satellites; GEOSTATIONARY satellites; SEVERE storms; ATMOSPHERICS; REMOTE-sensing images
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 2023, Vol 128, Issue 17, p1
- ISSN
2169-897X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023JD038893