Global lightning activity and the hiatus in global warming

ORCID Identifiers

0000-0001-9403-6757

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

Publication Date

8-1-2019

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Multiple records of global temperature contain periods of decadal length with flat or declining temperature trend, often termed a ‘hiatus’. Towards assessing the physical reality of two such periods (1940–1972 and 1998–2014), lightning data are examined. Lightning activity is of particular interest because on many different time scales it has been shown to be non-linearly dependent on temperature. During the earlier hiatus, declining trends in regional thunder days have been documented. During the more recent hiatus, lightning observations from the Lightning Imaging Sensor in space show no trend in flash rate. Surface-based, radiosonde-based and satellite-based estimates of global temperature have all been examined to support the veracity of the hiatus in global warming over the time interval of the satellite-based lightning record. Future measurements are needed to capture the total global lightning activity on a continuous basis.

ISSN

1364-6826

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Volume

189

First Page

27

Last Page

34

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords

Global warming, Different time scale, Global lightning activity, Global temperatures, Lightning activity, Lightning imaging sensors, Lightning observations, Physical reality, Temperature trends, Lightning

Scopus ID

85064153192

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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