World Lightning Map (data-1995-2002/3)

[ZONE 51]

I am fascinated looking at these world lighting maps, the incredible amount of activity in some zones and much less in others is interesting. Might just search for an updated map at some point.

Data - 1995-2002/3

 

The area on earth with the highest lightning activity is located over the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. This area has thunderstorms all year round as a result of moisture-laden air masses from the Atlantic Ocean encountering mountains

 

During the period 1995-2003 the highest lightning strikes over the UK is shown over Southern areas, shown on the map in greens and blue. The far north seeing the least.

 

The map below is a world lightning map yrs 1995-2002:

Details about the lightning flash map below:

 

The map above shows the average yearly counts of lightning flashes per square kilometer based on data collected by NASA satellites between 1995 and 2002. Places where less than 1 flash occurred (on average) each year are gray or light purple. The places with the largest number of lightning strikes are deep red. Much more lightning occurs over land than ocean because daily sunshine heats up the land surface faster than the ocean. The heated surface heats the air, and more hot air leads to stronger convection, thunderstorms, and lightning. The map also shows that more lightning occurs near the equator than near the poles. This pattern is also due to differences in heating. The equator is warmer than the poles, and convection, thunderstorms, and lightning are widespread across the tropics every day. Image by NASA.

 

 

The next map is showing the annual flash rate for yrs 1995-2003 but mapped differently.

Annual flash rate world map:

Detail about this map are below:

 

World lightning map by NASA shows the geographic distribution of lightning. Areas of highest activity are shown in orange, red, brown, and black. Areas of low activity are white, gray, purple and blue.Lightning activity is lowest over the oceans and polar areas. It is highest over warm continental areas. The numbered scale represents lighting flashes per square kilometer per year

 

 

Link to the maps and the information presented in this thread and other information you may be interested in, there is a whole list down the left side on the link, from fossils to meteorites it's there!

http://geology.com/articles/lightning-map.shtml

 

ESS

Edited April 30, 2013 by ElectricSnowStorm