Identification

Title

Anvil microphysical signatures associated with lightning-produced NOx

Abstract

Thunderstorm anvils were studied during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry experiment (DC3), using in situ measurements and observations of ice particles and NOx together with radar and Lightning Mapping Array measurements. A characteristic ice particle and NOx signature was found in the anvils from three storms, each containing high lightning flash rates in the storm core prior to anvil sampling. This signature exhibits high concentrations of frozen droplets (as measured by a Cloud Droplet Probe) coincident with lower NOx on the edges of the anvil. The central portion of these anvils exhibited a high degree of aggregation of these frozen droplets and higher levels of NOx. In contrast, a deep convective cell with low lightning flash rates had high concentrations of both frozen droplets and aggregated frozen droplets in its anvil's central region. A conceptual model for these results is presented and applied to the observations from each of these storms. High NOx concentrations are often found where aggregation of frozen droplets has occurred, which may be a reflection of aggregation by electrical forces in the regions where lightning is occurring, although the level of NOx for a given concentration of aggregates varies from storm to storm. These observations between anvil microphysics and lightning and/or NOx signatures suggest that lightning data may be an important tool to characterize or infer the microphysical, radiative, and chemical properties of thunderstorm anvils.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7ng4s54

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-02-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact