Publications

Potdar, SS; Siingh, D; Biswasharma, R; Gautam, AS; Singh, RP (2025). Influence of land use land cover and topography on lightning distribution over north and north-east Indian region. JOURNAL OF ATMOSPHERIC AND SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS, 268, 106460.

Abstract
Spatio-temporal variation of lightning characteristics over North India (NI) and North-East India (NEI) during the period 2001-2014 is studied in connection with the land use land cover (LULC) and topography of the Himalaya ranges. Lightning flashes detected by Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite are analysed for different LULC classes measured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and elevation data from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). We observed that the annual lightning flashes are high in the NI region compared to the NEI region; with a peak during monsoon period in the NI region, whereas peaks in the NEI were found to be during pre-monsoon months. The thermodynamics parameters such as maximum temperature (MaxT), convective available potential energy (CAPE), latent heat flux (LHF) and bulk microphysics such as total cloud cover liquid water (TCCLW) and total cloud cover ice water (TCCIW) along with lightning flash rate density (LFRD) also analysed with respect to different LULC classes. The impact of LULC on lightning activity is evident in both the study regions. In the both the region, human-induced landscapes such as croplands, urban built-up areas consistently show the high lightning activity due to favourable thermodynamic and microphysical conditions. Natural landscapes such as forest, grasslands show moderate lightning activity while savannas and permanent wetlands shows high lightning activity showing that vegetation helps in maintaining high soil moisture which may play a significant role in lightning occurrences. Topography significantly influenced lightning occurrence, with higher flash rates in foothill areas due to surface heating and moisture convergence, and in Meghalaya due to orographic lifting. Lightning activity in both study regions is higher at lower altitudes (<500m) and decreases with altitude, with a more prominent decline in case of NI region. We found the positive lightning trends in areas of expanding agriculture and urbanization highlighting the role of LULC change in the lightning distribution over both the regions.

DOI:
10.1016/j.jastp.2025.106460

ISSN:
1879-1824