TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD-TO-GROUND LIGHTNING ACTIVITY IN HONG KONG AND RELATED IMPACT FACTORS
FEI Lei-lei
BI Xin-hui
LIU Yong-lin
CHAN Lo-yin
LIN Qin-hao
WANG Xin-ming
SHENG Guo-ying
Abstract：Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning location data during 2006-2012 along with other relevant data,including meteorological parameters and terrain elevation,are analyzed to explore the characteristics of CG lightning activity in Hong Kong and related impact factors.Results show that the largest number of CG lightning strokes was detected in 2010 and the smallest number in 2011.The number of the days with high CG lightning frequency played a key role in the inter-annual variation of CG lightning activity in Hong Kong.The occurrence of CG lightning mainly concentrated between April and September.Positive correlations were shown between the monthly mean value of CG lightning stroke density and meteorological parameters,including temperature,relative humidity,rainfall and CAPE.The most active time for both positive and negative CG lightning strokes was about 1∶00 a.m.Lightning activity on the days with high CG lightning frequency,variation of solar radiation and differences in the thermodynamic characteristics between land and ocean were the main factors that affected the daily variation.In terms of spatial distribution,positive CG lightning stroke density over western areas was much higher than that over eastern areas,and areas with high negative CG lightning stroke density were mainly located around mountainous areas with high terrain elevation.Both positive and negative CG lightning stroke density showed a positive correlation with terrain elevation,and spatial distribution of negative CG lightning stroke density around six typical mountains showed a strong similarity with that of terrain elevation.
Keywords：cloud-to-ground lightning stroke densitytemporal and spatial distributionmeteorological conditionsterrain elevation
Publication Date：2017-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：10( 617-626 )