HR: 0800h
AN: A51D-0097 [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing Convective Influence by Utilizing Cloud to Ground Lightning Data and High Resolution
Kinematic Trajectories
AU: * Porter, M J
EM: mporter@met.fsu.edu
AF: The Florida State University, Department of Meteorology
404 Love Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306
United States
AU: Fuelberg, H
EM: fuelberg@met.fsu.edu
AF: The Florida State University, Department of Meteorology
404 Love Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306
United States
AU: Pickering, K
EM: pickering@gator1.gssc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 613.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771
United States
AU: Crawford, J
EM: James.H.Crawford@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681
United States
AU: Brune, W
EM: brune@ssc.psu.edu
AF: Pennsylvania State University, Department of Meteorology
504 Walker Building, University Park, PA 16802
United States
AU: Cohen, R
EM: cohen@cchem.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California,
Berkeley, Department of Chemistry
Room 419 Latimer Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
AU: Heikes, B
EM: bheikes@gso.uri.edu
AF: University of Rhode Island, SOUTH FERRY RD, Narragansett, RI 02882
United States
AU: Sachse, G
EM: glen.w.sachse@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681
United States
AU: Singh, H
EM: Hanwat.B.Singh@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-5, Moffett Field, CA 94035
United States
AU: Wennberg, P
EM: wennberg@gps.caltech.edu
AF: California Institude of Technology, MC 170-25
1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125
United States
AB:
One must understand the generation of NOx by lightning (LNOx) and its vertical redistribution by convection to quantify the
atmospheric processing of reactive nitrogen species. This study addresses these themes by revisiting Jeker's concept of
"lightning tracing" (Jeker et al., JGR, 2000) using INTEX-A data gathered from June to August 2004. Kinematic trajectories
calculated with output from the National Weather Service's Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model are initialized along several
convectively influenced flights and then followed back to their most recent intersection with lightning flashes observed by
the National Lightning Detection Network. Since the RUC data are hourly at a 20 km spacing, their resolution is much greater
than usually available with global data. This procedure allows a meteorological assessment of the sample's age since
convection, which then is compared to its observed chemistry. In addition, the influence of the most recent lightning
encounter on the chemical data is contrasted to the influence of lightning accumulated along the entire back trajectory.
Finally, an analysis of the number of flashes encountered along the trajectory provides a means to quantify LNOx production.
Performing this "lightning tracing" over multiple flights spanning the entire troposphere allows the construction of a
post-convective LNOx vertical profile for INTEX-A.
UR: http://bertha.met.fsu.edu/presentations/
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 3314 Convective processes
DE: 3324 Lightning
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005