Jeremy N Thomas Research Interests

Lightning and tropical cyclone intensity change  [AMS Preprint, Solorzano et al. 2008]

There have been only a few previous investigations of lightning activity generated by tropical cyclones. This is mainly because tropical cyclones are oceanic storms that occur away from land-based regional lightning networks. We use the World Wide Lightning Location Network  (WWLLN, wwlln.net), which allows for potentially detailed studies of tropical cyclones well before they hit land without the need for in situ measurements. In a preliminary analysis with Natalia Solórzano (Digipen Institute of Technology), we show how lightning activity in different regions of the storms, such as the eyewall and rainbands, might be used to identify changes in intensification. These results suggest that eyewall lightning outbreaks occur during periods of rapid intensity change during Atlantic basin and western Pacific tropical cyclones, which has important implications for the future improvement of tropical cyclone forecasting.

The figure to the right shows WWLLN located lightning in storm-centered coodinates during western Pacific Super Typhoon Chanchu on 14 May 2006 with the eyewall and rainbands clearly evident (see Solorzano et al. 2008 for more info).