Identification

Title

A TRMM assessment of the composition of the generator current that supplies the global electric circuit

Abstract

The Peterson et al. (2015, ) passive microwave electric field retrieval is applied to 15years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite observations to estimate the amount of Wilson current supplied to the Global Electric Circuit from individual electrified cloud features (ECFs), which are identified as contiguous precipitating cloud regions that produce Wilson current. Current contributions from 37 million ECFs sampled by TRMM are used to examine the composition of the DC generator current. Thunderstorms are found to supply 61% of the total retrieved current, while electrified shower clouds provide the remaining 39%. ECFs over land contribute 38% of the total current, while the ocean contributions are divided between coastal oceanic regions (35%) and the open ocean (27%). The greatest share of the total TRMM-retrieved current comes large mesoscale features (>2x10(3)km(2) in area) and features that have peak 20-km electric fields in excess of 1kVm(-1). This combination of extent and intensity leads to total currents greater than 10A for a single ECF. The ranking of the tropical chimney regions by total current production is (1) the Americas (38%), (2) Asia (32%), and (3) Africa (15%). ECFs over the tropical Pacific Ocean contribute the remaining 15%. The Africa chimney is most prominent in total lightning activity but lags behind the others in total DC current due to a reduced frequency of electrified weather and weaker per-storm electric fields and Wilson currents compared to the other chimneys.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d72z18dg

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-08-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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Conformity

Data format

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact