Lightning Potential Index in the Czech Republic during convective events of summer 2018 using COSMO NWP model

0510875 - ÚFA 2020 DE eng A - Abstract
Sokol, Zbyněk - Minářová, Jana - Uhlířová, Iva
Lightning Potential Index in the Czech Republic during convective events of summer 2018 using COSMO NWP model.
10th European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS 2019). Münchene: European Severe Storms Laboratory e.V. (ESSL), 2019.
[European Conference on Severe Storms (ECSS) /10./. 04.11.2019-08.11.2019, Kraków]
Institutional support: RVO:68378289
Keywords : convective storm * lightning * lightning potential index (LPI) * numerical weather prediction * COSMO model
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/ECSS2019/ECSS2019-10.pdf

This contribution is focused on analysis of Lightning Potential Index (LPI) calculated by the COSMO Numerical
Weather Prediction (NWP) model for convective days, when the lightning was observed in the Czech Republic.
We use the COSMO NWP model with 1 and 2-moment microphysics with a horizontal resolution of 1.2 km and
70 vertical levels. The integration domain covers a large part of the Czech Republic. LPI is defined as the kinetic
energy of the updraft in a thundercloud that is scaled by the potential for charge separation. The charge separation is
assumed to be closely related to the simultaneous presence of updrafts, supercooled liquid water, graupel, and ice.
In COSMO, the LPI is closely bounded to explicit simulation of convective cells and ice microphysics. LPI values
above zero indicate a potential of a lightning flash and the greater the LPI value, the higher the potential of flashes.
We compare values of LPI with ground based measurements of lightning that are at our disposal from Siemens
lightning database (BLIDS). We are motivated by the fact that studies conducted over Germany showed that the
spatial and temporal distribution of the LPI values greater than 0 corresponds well with that of the observed flash
rates. However, such studies are not available for the Czech Republic. In addition, we suppose that 1 and 2-moment
microphysics may give different values of LPI. We will present the obtained results at the conference.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0301247