{"title":"Impact of aerosols on atmospheric electrification over East and West Africa","authors":"B. Mmame , C. Ngongondo","doi":"10.1016/j.jastp.2024.106375","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studies have shown that atmospheric aerosols can modify cloud microphysics. The influence of atmospheric aerosols on mechanisms that lead to generation of lightning is very complex and not fully understood. Recent studies have also revealed that, west Africa has high concentration of atmospheric aerosols due to localized wind which diverge from Sahara desert to this area. This study investigates the impact of atmospheric aerosols on lightning flash rate over east and west Africa by utilizing aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis data, convective available potential energy (CAPE), potential temperature, surface relative humidity, clouds and lightning flash rate. Pearson correlation and partial correlation have been applied between lightning flash rate and AOD, humidity, clouds, CAPE as well as potential temperature. Quantitative results show that there is a strong positive correlation (<span><math><mo>∼</mo></math></span>0.75) between lightning flash rate and aerosols under low concentration of aerosols (AOD <span><math><mo>≤</mo></math></span> 0.6) due to aerosol microphysics effect. In the presence of high aerosol concentration (AOD <span><math><mo>></mo></math></span> 0.6), the correlation coefficient between lightning flash rate and aerosols is somehow weak (<span><math><mo>∼</mo></math></span>0.45) due to decrease in the number of ice particles as well as radiation effect of aerosols. However, the correlation coefficient between lightning flash rate and CAPE, clouds and potential temperature are all positive under both high and low concentration of atmospheric aerosols.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15096,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106375"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364682624002037","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Studies have shown that atmospheric aerosols can modify cloud microphysics. The influence of atmospheric aerosols on mechanisms that lead to generation of lightning is very complex and not fully understood. Recent studies have also revealed that, west Africa has high concentration of atmospheric aerosols due to localized wind which diverge from Sahara desert to this area. This study investigates the impact of atmospheric aerosols on lightning flash rate over east and west Africa by utilizing aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis data, convective available potential energy (CAPE), potential temperature, surface relative humidity, clouds and lightning flash rate. Pearson correlation and partial correlation have been applied between lightning flash rate and AOD, humidity, clouds, CAPE as well as potential temperature. Quantitative results show that there is a strong positive correlation (0.75) between lightning flash rate and aerosols under low concentration of aerosols (AOD 0.6) due to aerosol microphysics effect. In the presence of high aerosol concentration (AOD 0.6), the correlation coefficient between lightning flash rate and aerosols is somehow weak (0.45) due to decrease in the number of ice particles as well as radiation effect of aerosols. However, the correlation coefficient between lightning flash rate and CAPE, clouds and potential temperature are all positive under both high and low concentration of atmospheric aerosols.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (JASTP) is an international journal concerned with the inter-disciplinary science of the Earth''s atmospheric and space environment, especially the highly varied and highly variable physical phenomena that occur in this natural laboratory and the processes that couple them.
The journal covers the physical processes operating in the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, the Sun, interplanetary medium, and heliosphere. Phenomena occurring in other "spheres", solar influences on climate, and supporting laboratory measurements are also considered. The journal deals especially with the coupling between the different regions.
Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other energetic events on the Sun create interesting and important perturbations in the near-Earth space environment. The physics of such "space weather" is central to the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics and the journal welcomes papers that lead in the direction of a predictive understanding of the coupled system. Regarding the upper atmosphere, the subjects of aeronomy, geomagnetism and geoelectricity, auroral phenomena, radio wave propagation, and plasma instabilities, are examples within the broad field of solar-terrestrial physics which emphasise the energy exchange between the solar wind, the magnetospheric and ionospheric plasmas, and the neutral gas. In the lower atmosphere, topics covered range from mesoscale to global scale dynamics, to atmospheric electricity, lightning and its effects, and to anthropogenic changes.
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