Visualization of Lightning for Documenting the Spatiotemporal Patterns of Thunderstorms in Washington, DC

Keywords: urban climate, lightning, visualization, geospatial analysis
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 34

Abstract

Lightning events serve as a critical metric for mapping the spatial and temporal dynamics of thunderstorms. By uniquely integrating larger time-scale aggregate visualizations of lightning distribution with the smaller, process-based thunderstorm events that produce it, evolving patterns of atmospheric phenomena emerge. Lightning event analysis is a useful method to stratify the lightning flash database in order to construct visualizations of thunderstorms in urban areas. When conducting geospatial analysis of lightning with respect to other climatic variables, decisions of how lightning should be represented in GIS are critical for accurate analysis of those relationships. Using warm season cloud-to-ground lightning data from the National Lightning Detection Network, we explore a variety of ways that lightning can be visualized in the context of urban thunderstorm events, including use of metrics such as total lightning, lightning density, number of lightning days, percent positive lightning, and minimum and maximum negative and positive polarities.