Lightning as a Precursor of Atlantic Hurricane Activity
Recent years have shown the tremendous damage and loss of life that can be caused by Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. The majority of these hurricanes start as African Easterly Waves (AEWs) over continental West Africa. These waves form in the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) and appear to be triggered by intense lightning activity in tropical east Africa. In this paper we provide evidence showing the connection between lightning activity over eastern Africa, and the AEWs that leave the west coast of Africa, some of which develop into hurricanes. We have analyzed the 2005 and 2006 hurricane seasons (June-September), one a very active hurricane year (2005), and the other a very quiet year (2006). More than 90％ of the tropical storms and hurricanes during these 2 years were preceded by periods of above average thunderstorm activity in eastern Africa, approximately 7 days prior to the AEWs entering the Atlantic Ocean. During 2006 not only was the mean east African lightning activity 23％ lower than during 2005, but the lightning activity over the entire African continent was 36％ lower in 2006. We suggest the possibility that lightning activity in tropical Africa may represent an important precursor of Atlantic hurricane formation.
Colin Price Yoav Yair Mustafa Asfur
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel Department of Life and Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, Israel
国际会议
第13届国际大气电学会议(The 13th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity)
北京
英文
2007-08-13（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）