Reduction in Global Lightning Activity During the COVID Pandemic
Name
JGR Atmospheres - 2025 - Liu - Reduction in Global Lightning Activity During the COVID Pandemic.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.54 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
62836f77855b05e5cb1a3e881a6b41ea
Author(s)
Liu, Yakun
Williams, Earle
Guha, Anirban
Satori, Gabriella
Neto, Osmar Pinto
Said, Ryan
Holzworth, Robert
Virts, Katrina
Lang, Timothy
Zhu, Yanan
Date Issued
April 28, 2025
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Liu, Y., Williams, E., Guha, A., Satori, G., Neto, O. P., Said, R., et al. (2025). Reduction in global lightning activity during the COVID pandemic. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 130, e2024JD042319.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The effect of anthropogenic aerosols on lightning is one of the least understood aspects of human‐induced climate change. Global aerosol clearly diminished during the COVID pandemic by 7.6%. A pronounceddecrease in global lightning activity in the range 3.0%–5.8% is identified from various detection systems duringthis natural experiment. The Maritime Continent lightning chimney shows the largest reduction of 7.0% inaerosol accompanied by a lightning drop of 15%. The COVID period in 2020 also experiences a transition frompre‐COVID El Niño to a strong and sustained La Niña. Compensation for ENSO forcing of lightning activity isimplemented to disclose the distinct responses of three global lightning chimneys to competing thermodynamicand aerosol effects. Our observational findings indicate a marked influence of aerosol on a global scale by virtueof the extraordinary COVID‐induced aerosol alteration.
MIT Department
Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD042319
