Characterization of lightning strikes in the Northeast of Brazil
LIS, GLM, TRMM, GOES-16, thunderclouds, multi-channels.
Due to its aggressive and devastating characteristics, lightning strikes have been constituted in the history as the central point of several scientific communities observations around the world, causing scientific knowledge regarding the phenomenon to evolve significantly. However, our ability to represent its spatial and temporal variability, in addition to its relation with other environmental characteristics, remains as a key challenge. It is estimated that about 60-75 million lightning strikes occur annually, which are responsible for the death of approximately 132 people every year in Brazil. The Northeast of Brazil (NEB) concentrates 18% of all deaths occurring throughout the brazilian territory, and considering the population of the different regions, the state of Piauí had the highest mortality rate in the region (1.8 deaths per million); this value being much higher than the national rate (0.8) and the NEB (0.5). In this sense, the present work will seek to evaluate the lightning occurrence in the Northeast of Brazil, characterizing its relation with cloud microphysics. Within this scope, data from two different orbital platforms will be used: i) from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) sensors will be used , where the first provides data about the lightning occurrence throughout the tropical strip of the planet and the last two provide information about the microphysical characteristics of clouds and an estimate of the precipitation rate; ii) from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16), data from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) will be used, about the occurrence and location of lightning strikes and Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), a 16-channel sensor, with 2 visible , 4 in the near infrared and 10 in the infrared. First, the TRMM data will be analyzed in order to establish a relation between the lightning occurrence and the microphysical characteristics of the clouds (ice water path, rain water path, freezing height level, convective precipitation and surface precipitation), comparing them according to classes of lightning occurrence, spatial location and atmospheric profiles. Subsequently, the relation of multi-channel from the ABI sensor will be evaluated as a function of the lightning frequency measured by the GLM. It is expected that at the end of the project, the location and periods of major occurrences of lightning strikes will be established, as well as the definition of the participation of each microphysical variable studied in the lightning occurrence strikes, in addition to helping to detect the imminence of lightning strikes from the multi-channels.