Journal of Atmospheric Science Research | ISSN: 2630-5119

Editor-in-Chief
Dr. José Francisco Oliveira Júnior
Initiative for Climate Action Transparency/Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Brazil
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Editor-in-Chief
Dr. José Francisco Oliveira Júnior
Journal of
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Volume 3 Issue 3· July 2020 · ISSN 2630-5119 (Online)
Volume 4 Issue 2 • April 2021 • ISSN 2630-5119 (Online)

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Journal of Atmospheric Science Research
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ARTICLE
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Transport and Deposition of Saharan Dust Observed from Satellite Images and Ground Measure-
ments
Habib Senghor Alex J. Roberts Abdou L. Dieng Dahirou Wane Cheikh Dione Mouhamed Fall
Abdoulahat Diop Amadou T. Gaye John Marsham
Review and Microphysics of the Maximum Electricity Atmospheric Activity in the World: the
Catatumbo Lightning (Venezuela)
Nelson Falcón
Study on the Causes of Rural Lightning Disaster and Countermeasures of Lightning Protection and
Disaster Reduction
Zhiqing Yuan
Climate Induced Virus Generated Communicable Diseases: Management Issues and Failures
Ravi Kant Upadhyay
Assessment of the Off-season Rainfall of January to February 2020 and Its Socio Economic Implica-
tions in Tanzania: A Case Study of the Northern Coast of Tanzania
Kombo Hamad Kai Sarah E Osima Agnes Laurence Kijazi Mohammed Khamis Ngwali
Asya Omar Hamad
1
12
22
27
51

1
Journal of Atmospheric Science Research | Volume 04 | Issue 02 | April 2021
Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jasr.v4i2.3165
https://ojs.bilpublishing.com/index.php/jasr
ARTICLE
Transport and Deposition of Saharan Dust Observed from Satellite
Images and Ground Measurements
Habib Senghor1,2*
Alex J. Roberts3
Abdou L. Dieng2
Dahirou Wane2
Cheikh Dione4
Mouhamed Fall2
Abdoulahat Diop1
Amadou T. Gaye2
John Marsham3
1.Agence nationale de l’aviation civile et de la météorologie, Sénégal
2.Laboratoire de Physique de l’Atmosphère et de l’Océan Simeon-Fongang (LPAO-SF), École Supérieure
Polytechnique (ESP) de l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar, Sénégal
3.School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
4.African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), Niger
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history
Received: 28 April 2021
Accepted: 20 May 2021
Published Online: 22 May 2021
Haboob occurrence strongly impacts the annual variability of airborne
desert dust in North Africa. In fact, more dust is raised from erodible
surfaces in the early summer (monsoon) season when deep convective
storms are common but soil moisture and vegetation cover are low. On 27
June 2018, a large dust storm is initiated over North Africa associated with
an intensive westward dust transport. Far away from emission sources,
dust is transported over the Atlantic for the long distance. Dust plume is
emitted by a strong surface wind and further becomes a type of haboob
when it merges with the southwestward deep convective system in central
Mali at 0200 UTC (27 June). We use satellite observations to describe
and estimate the dust mass concentration during the event. Approximately
93% of emitted dust is removed the dry deposition from the atmosphere
between sources (10°N–25°N; 1°W–8°E) and the African coast (6°N–21°N;
16°W–10°W). The convective cold pool has induced large economic and
healthy damages, and death of animals in the northeastern side of Senegal.
ERA5 reanalysis has shown that the convective mesoscale impacts strongly
the climatological location of the Saharan heat low (SHL).
Keywords:
Dust
Haboob
Saharan air layer
1. Introduction
Northern Hemisphere has been identified in as the larg-
est and most persistent dust source with an important con-
tribution of the Sahara and Sahel deserts [1,2]
. Almost 70%
of the global dust production are emitted from Sahara
desert [3]
. The seasonal timescales of the dust emission and
transport [4,5]
are mainly lead by various meteorological
mechanisms [6]
.
In boreal winter, from November to February [7]
, the
dust sources are predominantly activated by the break-
down of the Low-Level-Jet (LLJ) and the effect of the
latter mechanism is mainly dominated by the Bodélé De-
pression in Tchad which peaks during spring and particu-
*Corresponding Author:
Habib Senghor,
Agence nationale de l'aviation civile et de la météorologie; Laboratoire de Physique de l’Atmosphère et de l’Océan Simeon-Fongang
(LPAO-SF), École Supérieure Polytechnique (ESP) de l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar, Sénégal;
Email: habib.senghor@ucad.edu.sn

2
larly in May [6,7]
.
In boreal summer, the dust activity becomes very in-
tense with a peak in June in Western Africa [4]
. During
this period, the dust mobilization is preferentially led by
the density currents associated with the deep convective
systems. The density currents usually produce dust storms
in the afternoons and evenings hours [6]
. In fact, the meso-
scale convective systems and their associated cold pools
mobilized dust with a high frequency up to 50% during
nighttime [8–10]
. In addition, the orographic effect of the
Atlas Mountains can affect the deep moist convection by
blocking the advection of the systems. This can induce
density currents with an evaporative cooling of cloud
particles leading high surface wind speed and dust emis-
sion[11,12]
. The downward mixing of the LLJ momentum
to the surface causes 60% of the total dust amount in the
southern of the Hoggar-Tibesti channels [13]
. The LLJ
activity in the Western Sahara may strongly affect dust
emission in the mountain’s areas (such as Adrar and Air)
in addition to the downbursts from the deep moist con-
vection. The density currents generated by the convective
storms can propagate over many hundreds of kilometers
from the system and cause dust emission so-called “ha-
boob” events[14–16]
.
Modeling simulations have estimated the global dust
emission between 500 and 4400 Tg yr-1
and a range be-
tween 400 and 2200 Tg yr-1
from North Africa [17]
. Dust
raised in North Africa is predominantly transported and
deposited between June and August along the main dust
pathway, from Sahara region to the Americas [18–20]
.
Atmospheric dust can reduce the visibility [21–23]
, affect
the radiative budget by airborne particles directly and indi-
rectly [24]
. Mineral dust influences the global CO cycle[25]
2
through the biological carbon pump, precipitation and sea
surface temperature [26–28]
. Besides these consequences,
mineral dust impacts human health [29]
with a highest prev-
alence of respiratory infection such as asthma, bronchitis,
and tuberculosis [30,31]
. Dust storms which mainly occur
during the monsoon season in western Sahara can also
cause transport accidents for civilians and military [32]
.
The large haboob that occurred, from 26 to 27 June
2018 in western Sahel, is one of the most dust storms
churned in west African region. It caused important dam-
ages notified in Senegal including livestock losses as well
as material damages in the northern side of the country
and at Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD). It was
identified as the onset rainfall by the National Agency
of the Meteorology (ANACIM). This event has caused
serious environmental, social, and economic issues
with a rapid increase in the purchase prices of livestock.
Consequently, an adequate description of this event is
essential to improve the accuracy for weather forecasting
of extreme events. To address this issue, we use in-situ
measurements and satellite observations to describe the
synoptic situation of this case and estimate the amount of
dust loading during the event. This paper is organized as
follows: section 2 describes the data and methods, section
3 presents the dust event, section 4 analyzed results, and
finally a conclusion is given in section 5.
2. Data description and Methods
1. Observational Datasets
1. Photography
Photos taken by amateurs in Mali and Senegal on 27
June 2018 Figure 1(b-c) are used to display the haboob
like features of the dust storm as well as for estimating
vertical extent of the leading edge of the dust plume.
2.1.2 GOES Imagery
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
Program (GOES), developed by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) [33,34]
is used to
visualize the studied dust event. The Imager instrument
consists of five spectral bands ranging from the visible to
the longwave infrared channel. The spatial resolution for
the visible band is 1 km while most of the infrared has a
resolution of 4 km (at nadir) and the detectors are over-
sampled in the east-west direction [35]
. Imagery is collected
every 15 min to derive many operational products such
as cloud products (height, properties, etc.), atmospheric
motion, biomass burning, smoke, dust, and surface prop-
erties (e.g., land surface temperature) [34]
. The temporal
and spatial resolution of the GOES products allows for
the studied dust plume to be tracked as it moves across the
Atlantic giving insight into its behavior and development.
3. SEVIRI RGB Imagery
The system is also tracked by imagery derived from the
Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI)
on board the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) geosta-
tionary satellite. SEVIRI imagery has 15-minute temporal
resolution and 3 km for the grid spacing for 12 channels.
The SEVIRI sensor could identify dust and the cloud fea-
tures using respectively pink and dark colors [36]
.
4. NASCube Imagery
The North African Sand Storm Survey (NASCube)
algorithm processes the METEOSAT (MSG2) SEVIRI

3
instrument level 1.5 data from EUMETSAT and provides
24 h detection and characterization of sandstorms to track
their evolution over North Africa and Saudi Arabia [37]
.
The NASCube with the visual long-waves imagery is used
for the mesoscale convective system (MCS) monitoring
near the African coast and images are collected with one
hour-temporal resolution.
2.1.5 AERONET
The dust plume transported over Senegal is monitored
by Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET, [38]
developed
to support NASA, CNES, and NASDA’s Earth satellite
systems under the name AERONET and expanded by na-
tional and international collaboration, is described. Recent
development of weather-resistant automatic sun and sky
scanning spectral radiometers enable frequent measure-
ments of atmospheric aerosol optical properties and pre-
cipitable water at remote sites. Transmission of automatic
measurements via the geostationary satellites GOES and
METEOSATS’ Data Collection Systems allows reception
and processing in near real-time from approximately 75%
of the Earth’s surface and with the expected addition of
GMS, the coverage will increase to 90% in 1998. NASA
developed a UNIX-based near real-time processing, dis-
play and analysis system providing internet access to the
emerging global database. Information on the system is
available on the project homepage, http://spamer.gsfc.
nasa.gov. The philosophy of an open access database, cen-
tralized processing and a user-friendly graphical interface
has contributed to the growth of international coopera-
tion for ground-based aerosol monitoring and imposes
a standardization for these measurements. The system’s
automatic data acquisition, transmission, and processing
facilitates aerosol characterization on local, regional, and
global scales with applications to transport and radiation
budget studies, radiative transfer-modeling and validation
of satellite aerosol retrievals. This article discusses the op-
eration and philosophy of the monitoring system, the pre-
cision and accuracy of the measuring radiometers, a brief
description of the processing system, and access to the
database.”,”container-title”:”Remote Sensing of Environ-
ment”,”DOI”:”10.1016/S0034-4257(98) station located in
Mbour (14.76°N, 17.5°W). At this station located along
the route of the haboob, we use the dust properties Aero-
sol Optical Depth (AOD) and Ångstrom Exponent (AE)
to show the changes associated with the arrival of dust.
2.1.6 MODIS
To characterize mineral dust, we use their optical and
physical properties with AOD and AE which is inversely
proportional to the dust size. The westward propagation of
the plume is highlighted by the daily spatial distribution
of the AOD from the Moderate resolution Imaging Spect-
roradiometer (MODIS) [39]
.
The dust mass is estimated from MODIS’s AOD which
is mainly dominated by the contribution of desert dust
aerosols uplifted at the foothills of Hoggar and Adra
mountains in agreement with previous scholar [40]
. Dust is
quantified over land following the equation taken from [19]
:
Mdu = 2.7Aτdu (g) (1)
Where τdu is the mean dust AOD at wavelength 550 nm,
A is the plume area calculated by the regression between
the AOD and aerosol column concentration in Sahelo-Sa-
haran region [19]
.
2.1.7 CALIOP
The advection of the dust plume is studied using the
attenuated backscatter and the polarization signal from
the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization
(CALIOP) instrument on board the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar
and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)
satellite [41,42]
. In addition to the optical and physical prop-
erties of clouds and aerosols, CALIOP provides through
the volume depolarization ratio (VDR) a characterization
of the aerosol types. The VDR is defined as the ratio
between the perpendicular and the parallel components
of the backscatter coefficient of aerosols at 532 nm. The
VDR gives a quantitative discrimination of particles shape
[43]
and differentiates the spherical droplets (liquid) and
the nospherical (solid) [44,45]
. The VDR of mineral dust is
expected to be relatively high and range between 0.1 to 0.4
as heighted in [19,46,47]
.
2. Model Datasets
1. HYSPLIT
The NOAA Air Resources Laboratory’s (ARL) Hybrid
Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory mod-
el (HYSPLIT) computes the air masse trajectories and
transport, dispersion, and deposition [48,49]
. We use NOAA
HSYPLIT model to represent the 72 hour air masse back-
ward trajectories ending in Dakar at 1800 UTC on 27 June
2018 and all trajectories end at 2000 m height (Figure 1a).
2.2.2 ERA5 Reanalysis
The ERA5 reanalysis provides an estimation of the
global atmosphere, land surface and ocean waves from
1950 to present for 1 hour temporal resolution, 31 km for
the horizontal grid spacing and 137 vertical levels extent
from the surface up to 0.01 hPa [50(p. 5),51]
. We use the ERA5

4
Distributed under creative commons license 4.0
data to track the daily advection of the SHL during the pe-
riod’s event based on the atmospheric thickness between
two pressure levels [52]
a region of high surface tempera-
tures and low surface pressures, is a key element of the
West African monsoon system. In this study, we propose a
method to detect the WAHL in order to monitor its clima-
tological seasonal displacement over West Africa during
the period 1979–2001, using the European Centre for Me-
dium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF:
(2)
3. Dust Event Description
A severe sandstorm is initiated on 26 June 2018 in
southern Algeria, and is transported far away from North
Africa on 27 June 2018. The dust is transported over the
tropical North Atlantic Ocean (Figure 1a) and detected by
the GOES East satellite images over Atlantic (Figure 1d).
This type of dust storm has often been observed in Arabi-
an Peninsula, in desert areas located in the southwestern
of the United States of America (USA) and finally in the
largest mineral dust sources in North Africa. This haboob
is very thick over Mali (Figure 1b) and Senegal (Figure
1c) and is elevated at the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) pres-
sure levels between 1.5 and 6 km [5,53]
. Figure 1a shows
both northwestward and southwestward transport of air
masses which merge at 0200 UTC on 27 June 2018 over
western Mali. This merge powered the MCS and the
strong convection created a powerful haboob which im-
pacted local the economy, people living in the region and
especially the cattle-breeder. Several hundreds of livestock
deaths are noted, and planes are damaged at AIBD. The
event was part of very intense uplift and has contributed
to a larger dust outbreak event as shown in Figure 1d.
Figure 2 shows a development of the MCSs that pro-
duced the haboobs but the atmospheric moisture tends and
clouds associated with the MCS are obscuring the detec-
tion of dust outbreaks in multispectral SEVIRI images [36]
.
Whatever, SEVIRI can detect the amount dust loading ob-
served in Mauritania and North Mali where the moisture
is lower. The animation of the hourly SEVIRI images has
shown that the dust plume is advected from the northern
side of Mali at 2200 UTC (26 June) and is associated with
the development of small convective systems which are
also initiated in Northeast Mali at 1600 UTC (26 June)
(Figure not shown) and simultaneously a big convective
system is triggered in boundaries between Togo and Gha-
na at 1530 UTC (26 June). The MCS detected over Togo
and Ghana is strongly developed and southwestward ad-
vected in the afternoon on 26 June and covered entirely
Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and southwestern Mali (Fig-
ure 2c). By 0200 UTC (27 June), both systems (coming
from North and South) merge, and at 1100 UTC the meso-
scale convective wrapt up a large area from the southeast-
ern of Cote d’Ivoire to the southeastern side of Mauritania
(Figure 2d).
Figure 1. a) The location of the dust emission over North
Africa and Westward transport indicated by the back
trajectories made with the HYSPLIT model. The black re-
gions represent the area with no satellite coverage. b) and
c)are the photos taken in Mali (on 26 June) and Senegal
(27 June) giving an idea of their vertical extension. The
black boxes indicate the location where photos are taken.
d) The dust storm traveling over the Atlantic Ocean was
captured by the GOES East satellite.
Figure 2. The SEVIRI images a) at 0200 UTC and b)
2200 UTC on 26 June, and c) 0215 UTC and d) 1100
UTC on 27 June 2018. Dark red colors represent cold
cloud, bright ones show dust, which we use to track the
cold pools.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jasr.v4i2.3165

5
Figure 3 shows the daily evolution of the SHL before
and during the westward transport of the dust storm.
From 24 June to 27 June 2018, a clear change is noted in
the location of the SHL and a significant increase of the
SHL’s size is also identified (Figure 3). [52,54]
a region of
high surface temperatures and low surface pressures, is a
key element of the West African monsoon system. In this
study, we propose a method to detect the WAHL in order
to monitor its climatological seasonal displacement over
West Africa during the period 1979–2001, using the Eu-
ropean Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast (EC-
MWF have shown that the climatological position of the
SHL is located over North Africa between Atlas and Hog-
gar mountains around 20–25°N during the rainy season.
The cyclonic circulation in central Mali and southern side
of Mauritania on 24 June induces an easterly extension of
the SHL by the monsoon surge which brings moisture up
to 20°N (Figure 3a). The 925 hPa geopotential shows a
strong intensification of the Azores anticyclone circulation
on 27 June associated with strong westward dust transport
over Mauritania (Figure 3d) and northeasterly extension
of the SHL in agreement with [55]
.
4. Results
1.Analysis of Aerosol Properties Using Passive
Sensors
To analyze the westward transport of the dust plume,
we focus on ground detection using AERONET sun-pho-
tometer in Mbour (16.95°W, 14.39°N) in Western African
coast (Figure 4). The small dust particles are identified by
larger AE > 0.7 and AOD < 0.5 and coarse dust particles
are estimated by smaller AE < 0.7 associate to AOD >
0.5[5,56]
.
The daily variability of the AOD and AE shows heavy
dust loading in the atmosphere from 25 to 28 June 2018.
On 25 June at 1800 UTC, the atmosphere becomes slight-
ly dusty with an increase of AOD > 0.6 and decrease of
the AE < 0.1. On 26 June, the atmosphere is most clear in
Mbour as shown by the low values of AOD and high val-
ues of AE in the afternoon (Figure 4). The haboob arrived
to Mbour at 1300 UTC on 27 June and an abrupt change is
observed on AOD which increases up to 1.9 and AE less
than 0.5. Dust uplifted by the density currents and spread
towards western African coast by the leading edge of the
cold pool could be clearly seen in the Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG) images (Figure. 6c-d).
4.2 Assessment of Dust Emissions
The spatial distribution of the hourly AOD from Na-
scube (Figure 5(a-b)) shows a very dusty atmosphere
with AOD values greater than 1.9 over the Sahel region
on 26 and 27 June. Dust emission sources can be clearly
seen (Figure 5a) and the northward advection of the dust
plume highlighted by maximum dust mass around 16°N
and 18°N respectively on 26 and 27 June (Figure 5d). The
Figure 3. Color shading represent the 90 percentil of the daily mean position of the Saharan heat low and the blue lines
show the 925 hPa geopotential height on: 24 June (a), 25 June b), 26 June c), and 27 June d). The 925 hPa wind vector
is shown in gray arrow.

6
Figure 4. AOD at 400 nm and AE for 380–500 nm taken from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) at Mbour (70
km from Dakar) station from 25 to 28 June 2018. The green patch indicated the time when the dust storm overpasses
towards Senegal.
Figure 5. a) and b) respectively AOD computed from the NASCube algorithm at 1800 UTC on 26 June, and 0200 UTC
on 27 June 2018. c) distribution of the dust mass estimated from the MODIS AOD and a climatological distribution
between 2002 and 2019.

7
dust mass has shown that a significant difference is noted
between 26-27 June in comparison with climatological
values in the latitudinal band between 10°N and 20°N)
(Figure 5d).
4.3 Vertical Distribution of the Dust Plume
As explained in term of dust mass concentration in
the previous section, a clear decreasing of the dust plume
thickness is shown between sources (13.13°N-25.33°N;
5.77°W-2.95°W) and African coast (13.18°N-25.38°N;
16.75°W 13.75°W), respectively on 26 June and 27 June
(Figure 6a-b).
The VDR shows that the retrieved signal is mostly
dominated by the dust particles with a clear indication of
the dust plume transport (Figure 7c-d). Pure dust particles
are given by the VDR values ranged between 0.1 and 0.4
as defined in [19]
. The majority of the retrieved signals are
obtained for pure dust but it is clear that the dust plume is
particularly polluted by the biomass-burning indicated by
VDR smaller than 0.1. The presence of clouds is shown
by VDR > 0.4 (Figure 6 and Figure 7c-d).
4.4 Surface Measurements
We are now focusing on the ground-based measure-
ments to investigate the impact of the dust storm on the
weather observations in Senegal. At 09 00 UTC (27 June),
when the MCS is overpassing the northeastern side of
Senegal at Matam (Figure 7c), a change is observed in
surface wind speed (Figure 7a). The wind directions sug-
gest the westward advection of the MCS and the arrival of
Figure 6. a) and b) CALIOP vertical attenuated backscatter profiles (km-1
.sr-1
) for wavelength 532nm band. The location
of the dust plume, clouds and the satellite orbit are indicated in (a) at 0203 UTC on 26 June. b) shows the same charac-
teristics with orbit in African coast. c) shows the VDR occurrence taken from the vertical cross-section covered by the
aerosol plumes for the region between [13N-30N; 13W-16W] is showed by the CALIOP nighttime profiles on 27 June
2018. c) Regions dominated by pure dust (D) aerosols, clouds (C) and (P) polluted dust (mixed with biomass-burning)
are respectively marked in red.

8
the cold pool outflows at Matam is shown by the drop of
the surface temperature of about 9°C between 0900 and
1200 UTC, the change in wind direction.
The ground measurements taken from Dakar weather
station indicate that the arrival of the MCS cold pool is
shown by changes in wind direction and wind speed of
about 15 m.s-1
at 1500 UTC, the relative humidity jumps
up to 90% and the drop of temperature is about 5°C (Fig-
ure 7b). The convective storms lead to local emission
which are responsible for the high impact weather.
5. Conclusions
This study focuses on the description of the severe
summer Saharan dust storm which occurred between 26
and 27 June 2018 over western Africa. SEVIRI, Nas-
cube and GOES imagery have shown a clear dust storm
spread by the dynamic of the density currents at the edge
of the spectacular convective system. The power of this
system is supported by the merge of both northwestward
and southwestward convective systems and the moisture
brought by the monsoon flux. Photos of the cold pool tak-
en by amateurs, in Mali and Senegal and the CALIOP at-
tenuated backscatter give an idea of the vertical extent of
the dust plume (~5 km height). Dust mass concentration
estimated by the MODIS observations shows an emission
of huge quantities of dust over the Sahara region. The
advection of dust is clearly shown by the surface wind
less than 6 m/s at Matam in the southeasterly part of Sen-
egal and the westward dust transport is amplified by the
strong contribution of the local dust emission. The local
dust emissions and strong wind speed shown by observa-
tions in Dakar have produced considerable damages on
the planes of the transair company at Dakar Airport. The
death of animals at Matam could be attributed to this very
rare drastic reduction of the surface temperature by about
9°C. Due to the important effects of dust transport on the
environment, human life and convection, it is necessary to
describe and improve our understanding of the causes and
processes driving this type of dust storm.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by UK Research and Innovation
as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, African
SWIFT programme, grant number NE/P021077/1. The
Agence Nationale de l’Aviation civile et de la Météorolo-
gie (ANACIM), ICARE Data and services center, Univer-
sity of Lille, the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
istration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Figure 7. Surface weather variables taken from ANACIM Network stations. a) and b) Surface temperature (red lines),
wind speeds (black lines), wind direction (pink lines) and the moisture (blue line), respectively at Matam (13W, 15°N)
and Dakar (17°W, 14N). (c) and (d) are the Nascube images taken respectively at 0900 UTC and 1500 UTC in West
Africa. Clouds are represented in white color, land in brown and surface ocean in black color. Black boxes show the
position of the stations Matam and Dakar.

9
Administration (NOAA) are owed for sharing ground
observations and satellite data.
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12
ARTICLE
Review and Microphysics of the Maximum Electricity Atmospheric
Activity in the World: the Catatumbo Lightning (Venezuela)
Nelson Falcón*
Universidad de Carabobo, FACYT, Dpto de Física, Laboratory of Physics of the Atmosphere and Ultraterrestrial
Space, Apdo. Postal 129 Avda, Bolívar Norte, Valencia 2001, Carabobo, Venezuela
Article history
Received: 28 December 2020
Accepted: 22 February 2021
A review of the state of knowledge and phenomenology on the site of
the greatest atmospheric electrical activity in the world, known as the
Catatumbo Lightning, located southeast of Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela),
is presented. A microphysical model is presented to explain the charging
process through electrical displacement within the cells of the cloud,
incorporating the role of the self-polarization of ice and methane molecules
as pyroelectric aerosol, which accounts for the phenomenology and is
consistent with electrification in thunderstorm. It is concluded that the
pyroelectric model allows to explain the phenomenology of the rapid
discharges of the flashes in the Catatumbo lightning and could be applied in
outer planetary lightning.
Keywords:
Catatumbo lightning
Atmospheric electricity
Microphysical of cloud
Aerosols
Methane
1. Introduction and Overview
In the last decades the development of geomantic has
made possible the remote sensing of electro meteors on a
global scale thanks to the lightning detection systems: the
Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) [1]
and the World Wide
Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) [2]
. In addition to
the advances that this has meant for the understanding of
the global electrical circuit, these satellite systems have
established the regions with the highest keraunic activity
(atmospheric electricity level) in particular they have cor-
roborated that the region south of Lake Maracaibo (Vene-
zuela) as the largest lightning hotspot [3-5]
.
The electro meteors such as flash lightning and dis-
charges cloud-cloud lightning are common in the whole
region to the south of the Maracaibo lake (Venezuela)
including the deltas of the rivers Catatumbo and Brave [6-8]
,
where the report the highest flash rate (FDR) of the planet:
232,52 flash km-2
years [5]
.
This phenomena, well-known as the Catatumbo Light-
ning or Maracaibo Lighthouse, is characterized by the
persistent occurrence nocturnal of a dry lightning,; with-
out rain nearby, and whose brightness in the sky, during
almost the whole year, is such that it can be seen from
far away. It`s can be observed from the Caribbean sea, in
most of southwestern Venezuela, until the river Magdale-
na in Colombia.
The epicenter area of the Catatumbo Lightning doesn’t
Nelson Falcón,
Universidad de Carabobo, FACYT, Dpto de Física, Laboratory of Physics of the Atmosphere and Ultraterrestrial Space, Apdo. Postal
129 Avda, Bolívar Norte, Valencia 2001, Carabobo, Venezuela;
Email: nelsonfalconv@gmail.com

13
vary from its first mention written by Lope de Vega (1534)
[9]
. The naturalistic Alexander von Humboldt (1807) de-
scribes the phenomenon like “electric explosion that are
as phosphorescent radiances” [10]
and geographer Agustín
Codazzi (1841) points [11]
out him as a continuous light-
ning for almost every night of the year, even in the period
of drought.
Both 19th-century naturalists stand out the peculiar
phenomena of Catatumbo Lightning: the persistent noc-
turnal flash of the Lightning (intra-clouds, without cloud-
ground discharges) produced by a thunderstorm that is
unaccompanied by rain. Also that is observed in direction
of southeast of Maracaibo city, and the west of Santa
Barbara city (Zulia state) during for most of the year; and
consequently occurs outside of the Maracaibo lake. This
observations have been confirmed by the expeditions of
the of the Centeno and Zavrostky in the 20th-century [12-14]
and most recently by the expeditions of the Falcon and Pi-
ter in 21th-century [6,7,15,16]
in the interior of National park
“Cienagas de Juan Manuel” ; that is a swampy region of
about 226,000 acres in southwest of Maracaibo lake. This
region, that contains the epicenters of the nocturnal flash
of the intra-clouds discharges [6,17]
, is limited by the Santa
Ana river basin in the north, and by Catatumbo river at
south. The west limit is the regional road between towns
Machiques and Casiguas The Cube; and the east limits are
the deltas of these rivers and Maracaibo lake (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Geoposition of Catatumbo Lightning epicenters
(Own source). The coordinates of center in the map is
denote with cross .
Keraunic activity maps are prepared by counting
discharges (in VLF and HLF band) detected by the sat-
ellite during its flight on a given day, and dividing by
the reference area. The statistics are repeated for various
daily overflights, and are expressed in terms of num-
ber of discharges per year and per unit area (km-2
). This
process generates a bias in the distribution since cloud-
ground lightning discharges are more conspicuous than
intra-cloud flashes; and the latter is not always accounted
for by remote sensing when they occur simultaneously.
The result is the underestimation of the atmospheric elec-
trical activity in the swamps where the epicenters have
been located by in situ observation from the ground. Thus,
the epicenters reported by Albrecht and collaborators
appear displaced towards the center of Lake Maracaibo
in the direction of the town of Lagunillas [5]
, very distant
from the Catatumbo river itself, for whose toponymy the
phenomenon has been named (Figure 1). The same bias is
repeated by other authors who use only satellite observa-
tions instead of in situ exploration of the region, despite
being in close proximity [18]
.
Bypassing the dry, nocturnal, persistent and localized
character of the Catatumbo lightning, by remote sensing
bias, involves the simplification of interpreting the elec-
trical activity of the Catatumbo lightning only as cloud-
ground discharges [18,19]
, which certainly take place the
shores of Lake Maracaibo, where storm clouds are dis-
charged with rain.
Figure 2. General view of the Catatumbo lightning,
towards the center of the Juan Manuel swamps (Own
source). Top panel (Left) From Bravo river (09º 14’ 15” N
72º 06’ 31” W 41 m asl). (right) from lagoon “La Negra”
(09º 14’ 13” N 72º 06’ 33 W 36 m asl) . Bottom panel
from pile-dwelling “Punta Chamita” (09º 05.77’ N 71º
42.88’ W 1.96 m asl). [6,7]
Figure 2 shows the appearance of dry lightning, from
its epicenters adjacent to the Catatumbo River. The on-site
observations of the Catatumbo lightning, from the epicen-
ters in swamps of the “Juan Manuel”, from Santa Barbara
city (Zulia) and even from the Maracaibo city, show that
the flashes of the discharges occur repeatedly in the same
cells of the cumulus-nimbus anvil cloud with periodicity

14
average of 28 flashes per minute [10-19]
. In Figure 3 the
selected sequence of the rapid flashes of the Catatumbo
lightning is shown; Also note that the phenomenon ap-
pears towards the swamps, in the opposite direction to
Lake Maracaibo. Then the characteristic times for the
recharge of the cloud cell are of the order of 0.46 seconds
which is a much shorter period, in three orders of magni-
tude, than the free fall time of the drops inside the cell of
the cloud. Therefore, any charging mechanism, based on
the decay, rupture and coalescence of raindrops within the
storm cloud is insufficient for the continuous generation
of cell recharge.
The usual explanation of electrical activity as the phe-
nomenology of the Catatumbo lightning is attributed to
the presence of convective flows, typical of the inter-trop-
ical regions favored by the diurnal warming and by the
thermal gradients between cloud and ground in the stormy
zones with abundant convective movements [19]
. Notice
that the convective model does not explain for itself the
electrical activity but rather the rainfall. To explain the
lightning flashes, it is needed to add a series of very debat-
able models which could cause the separation of charges
in thunderclouds [20]
. And consequently the synoptic and
mesoscale considerations invoked by some authors [18,19]
do not explain electrical activity; neither they provide any
hypothesis of which mechanism is responsible for the
transformation of available convective energy into electri-
cal energy [18]
.
The classical picture about charge generation inside
thunderstorms involved convection and particle charging.
The convective mechanism describes the cloud electrifi-
cation without any charge transfers during the particles
collisions but only by convection which redistributes the
charge attached previously by hydrometeors [21,22]
. How-
ever the electric field is two orders of magnitude smaller
than the minimal break down field. Therefore this mech-
anism by itself is insufficient to generate the intracloud
electric field required for lightings [23,24]
. The charged par-
ticles will be separated thereafter by convection and grav-
itation due to their different masses, during collision and
rebounding between ice particles and other hydrometeors,
but this particle charging mechanisms is only valid for
short ranges of cloud-temperature and result insufficient
for the upper charge to look in thunderclouds [20, 24]
.
Since there has been no experiment to confirm conclu-
sively the classical model of atmospheric electricity, thun-
derclouds as the sources of the global electric circuit; it re-
mains a subject of debate [25]
; moreover the mechanism of
initial charge generation is quite controversial [25,26]
. Field
measurements and numerical model show that electrifica-
tion of particles in thunderclouds is accomplished on the
order of ten minutes after the initial precipitation within
the cloud, in conflict with the predictions in the particle
charging mechanism [26]
. Also lightning flashes have been
reported in volcanic eruptions, in Martian dust storms and
other extraterrestrial atmospheres, as Jupiter, Saturn, Ura-
nus and Titan [23,27,28]
.
Figure 3. Flashes of the Catatumbo lightning (Own
source). View towards “Juan Manuel” swamps. (in the
opposite direction to Maracaibo Lake), on the banks of the
Catatumbo River, from “Encontrados” town (9°10′41″N
72°14′09″W 6 m asl). Notice the flashes are produced by a
thunderstorm that is unaccompanied by rain neither cloud-
ground discharges.
As the physical chemistry of aerosols, ice crystal and
graupel, into the storm clouds, is associated to the gener-
ations of the atmospheric electrical phenomena can be we
are question: What mechanism allows us to explain the
transformation of available convective energy into electric
potential energy, capable of accounting for the phenome-
nology observed in the Catatumbo lightning?. Particularly,
how is the process of recharging the cloud cells (inside the
thundercloud) to give the rapid succession of the flashes?
A plausible mechanism for the charge generations and
separation process inter clouds could be the electrical
self-polarization, or pyroelectricity of some atmospheric
aerosols; the pyroelectrics materials have the property of
polarized spontaneity due to the intrinsic symmetry of the
molecules that constitute it, this implies that the electrical
displacement vector is not null, even without the presence
of external electric fields [29,30]
.
The objective of the present work is to evaluate the role
of the electrical auto polarization (pyroelectricity), due
to intrinsic molecular geometry of aerosols into the thun-
derclouds charge process. For this we present the general
model in seccion 2, the contribution of aerosols to electri-
cal displacement vector, together with the discussion phe-
nomenology about Catatumbo lightning in section 3; and
the remarkable conclusions in the last section.

15
2. Basic Assumptions and Microphysics De-
scription
We consider an only and isolated thundercloud in
hydrodynamic equilibrium, constituted by several cloud
cells, between 1.6 km and 14 km of altitudes. The volume
of unitary cell is ≈5 1010
m3
, with cubic geometry and 3.6
km the side, of locates to an altitude between h and h+d of
the surface. The cloud cell is in a region very near to plan-
etary boundary layer. In the atmosphere without clouds,
below to 60 km of altitude, there is an electrical vertical
field which intensity for average latitudes, is given by [31]
:
(1)
Figure 4. Physics magnitudes in the lower troposphere [30]
.
Now, we consider every cloud cell as a collection of
molecular dipoles in thermal equilibrium. The Maxwell
distribution of the molecular electrical dipoles contains
all the possible orientations of the dipolar moment respect
to the atmospheric electrical exterior field. If n denote the
value spreads on the total number of molecules and p is
the dipolar moment at the temperature T, then the electri-
cal displacement average D, is:
(2)
With kB the Boltzmann constant, E is the atmospheric
electric field and T the effective temperature.
The probability to found a molecule with the di-
polar momentum vector in an angle a with the ex-
ternal electric field is equal to the area differential
, and then the differential fraction of
the molecules number in the differential section of area is:
; Consequently we can
write
Where z is the altitude in kilometers.
The electrical potential difference in a cubic unitary D 
cell, isolated (air cell without aerosols), change monot-
onously with the altitude, together the variation of the
electric field. In the lower troposphere also the pressure
and the temperature decrease monotonously (Figure 4). If
the potential difference is smaller than 1000 KV (dielectric
break down for humid air) or 3000 KV (dielectric break
down for dry air) there are not electrical discharges. Then
Figure 4 show that the cell, in absence of steam conden-
sation and the aerosols, does not reach the dielectric break
down potential of the air.
1
0
d(cos )
d(cos )
1
1
 p.E 
E cos exp 
  K E (3)

k T 
1  p.E 
exp 

k T 
 B 


 


 B 

We must study the mesoscopic aerosols, which act to
intermediate scales in the convective clouds; limiting our-
selves to those that for its chemistry composition in the
air, present a dipolar moment electrically auto induced,
and which relative abundance is a significant fraction of
the air.
All of this leaves us basically with the water-ice and
methane, in tetrahedral symmetry, of the symmetry group
Td in Schoflield’s notation. It must be considered that the
crystalline configuration of the methane belongs to the
C4 symmetry group (it excludes the NaCl that is a cubic
system). These molecules and its microcrystal are pyro-
electrics, which polarize spontaneously when have been
formed crystals lacking of symmetry centers. The electri-
cal displacement vector is [29]
:
D  D0  P  0 E (4)
With P is the polarization and E is the external electric
field, i.e. the atmospheric electric field. The pyroelectricity
is a property of certain materials are naturally electrically
polarized and as a result contain large electric fields; those
is: occur an electrical displacement, although the external
field and the polarization are doing nulls.
In effect the crystals formation of pyroelectrics type in
the cloud might create spontaneous dipolar fields, so as
that the aerosols crystallize under some types of symmetry
C1 triclinic, CS or C2 monoclinic, C2v rhombic, C4 or C4v
tetragonal, C3 and C3v rhombohedra or C6 and C6v hexag-
onal. The water-ice and the methane are tetragonal sym-
metry (Figure 5). We must estimate the average value of
electrical displacement D for the water-ice and Methane.

16 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0
Figure 5. Tetrahedral molecular symmetry (Own source).
The dipole moment is oriented, a degrees with respect to
the atmospheric electric field. Water (left) Methane (right).
For the water and water-ice, the whole cloud cell from
the altitude h to the top level h+d; with d the typical thick-
ness of the cell:
(5)
Where KH2O is the electrical conductivity of water, as
function of altitude (z); the altitude (z) is also function
monotonous of the temperature T in the troposphere.
To calculation the intrinsic electrical displacement
D0 , we will suppose a cloud-cell of methane as diluted
(ideal) gas, in absence of external fields. Using the Gauss
Law we obtained that intrinsic electrical displacement is
equivalent to the superficial charge density (σ); this can be
interpreted as, if in every point of the cell, the field is pro-
duced by the most near molecule of methane; despising
the contributions of others molecules in conformity with
the approximation of ideal gas, it is valid to suppose that
x~a. Using the same approximation for the electric field
intensity E, in the z-axis, for the methane then:
(6)
Where e the electrons charge and p is the electrical di-
polar momentum.
We assume that the local field is produced only the in-
teraction between first neighbours. Since, as the Gaussian
approximation for the cell is independent, in the classic
description, of the volume of the cell, we have that in the
limit case of a monomolecular cell, both expressions of
dipole 0
electric fields must coincide (E ~σ/ε ), follows that [32]
:
(7)
If the cell is uniform, its charge density remains con-
stant, treating a monomolecular cell or treating of a mac-
roscopic cell, the cloud cell composition is a fraction (0
≤ f ≤ 1) of methane, in this case the intensity of the auto
induced field, in virtue of the realized approximations, fi-
nally we obtain for the molecule of methane:
(8)
For the methane (in the cloud-cell of water and meth-
ane), the total electrical displacement, is the intrinsic pyro-
electric displacement D0 plus the induced by the electrical
atmospheric field; the latter term can be calculated as in
watery cell. The dielectric constant of the methane, in the
low troposphere, is 1.67 [33]
. Then in cloud cell the average
value for the methane is:
(9)
The methane (CH4) is the main element of the terres-
trial atmospheric with pyroelectric properties, sixth atmo-
spheric component (0.000187%) and its pyroelectricity
has associate to generation of the Catatumbo Lightning
[6,7]
, the maximum hotspot lightning in the world. Also
in watery derivatives, the methane hydrides present in
permafrost, have relevant activity in oceanic climatology.
The methane is also the main ingredient of natural gas and
other fossil fuel-energy resource. Besides the methane has
been considered as an important factor in the formation
of lightning in Titan [23,34]
and the methane clouds have
been associated with lightning in Jupiter, Saturn and Ura-
nus[27,28]
.
3. Results and Discussion: Charge Process
and Catatumbo Lightning
Now consider an unitary cloud-cell the water and meth-
ane; in accords with (4) then by the electric displacement
vector is:
(10)
And, using (5) and (9), the average value is:
(11)
Note that even for a null external electric field (E) there
will be an electric displacement due to D0. The contri-
bution of the polarization P and the self-polarization D0
increase the charges separation into the cell and possibil-
ities the electronic avalanche for caused the intra-clouds
lightning.
Using the variation with the temperature of the di-
electric constant of water (in the lower troposphere the
temperature decrease monotonously), we can found the
electrical displacement into the clouds cell (Figure 6). We

17
use a methane concentration inside the cloud cell thou-
sand times minor (f = 2 10-9
) to the average atmospheric
composition. It is observed that for cloud cells between
2 and 15 km of altitude, the magnitude of the electrical
displacement due to water vapor is only a fraction of the
dielectric breakdown voltage of air; but its value increases
significantly if the contribution of methane is considered,
even for concentrations of one thousandth of the standard
atmospheric composition. Note that in this tropospheric
range the methane remains in the gas phase. Also we can
see (Figure 6) that the potential produced by the electrical
displacement D is a thousand times greater than the atmo-
spheric electric field (Figure 4).
Figure 6. Electrical contributions of water and methane in
cloud cell. (Own source).
In Figure 6 it is observed that the electric potential in
the water cloud cell, decreases monotonically from the
altitude of 2 km (maximum) and is always lower than
the dielectric breakage electric potential of the air (0.4-
3) MV / m. However, the incorporation of methane as
an aerosol in the cloud cell, even for concentrations of
one thousandth of the standard atmospheric composition,
would have electric field intensity 2.5 times higher, and
consequently the dielectric breakdown potential would be
reached. In any case, the contribution of methane to the
electric field in the cloud cell is always higher than the
aqueous contribution that decreases with altitude.
The pyroelectricity is a molecular phenomenon, it
does not depend on the solid or gaseous phase [29]
, so that
methane, even when in gaseous form, must contribute
to the electrical displacement in the cloud cell; whether
it is trapped in water ice, or mixed with steam (aqueous
solubility 0.033%). This is the simplest hydrocarbon and
is part of the atmospheres of the gaseous planets (Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) where lightning has been
detected [28]
; It is also the main atmospheric component of
Titan’s atmosphere, where it carries out a cycle of evap-
oration-condensation and precipitation with significant
electrical activity [23-27]
. Methane performs, in that satellite
of Saturn, a cycle analogous to the water cycle on Earth
(hydrological cycle).
In the electrical equivalent model of the storm cloud,
the associated capacitance of the cell can be calculated
at different altitudes (Telluric Capacitor Model) whose
results [30]
are shown in Figure 7 (Left). The maximum
charge acquired by the cloud cell is limited by the dielec-
tric breakdown voltage of humid air ΔV ≈ 1 MV, neces-
sary for electrical activity to manifest. Suppose a cubic
cell of 12.96 km2
in area and different thickness; the total
electrical charge of the cell is obtained as a function of
altitude (Figure 7 right). It is observed, regardless of the
size of the cloud cell, the charge values converge to the
same value of approximately 25 C, which is in accordance
with registered numerical values [24-31]
. Also, at the height
of 2 km, which is approximately the lowest height where
the storm clouds are found, the value of the charge is null.
The maxima electrical charge occurs at altitude at the 5
km, as the typical elevation of the cloud in Catatumbo
lightning [15,16]
.
Figure 7. Electrical capacitance of the watery cell a different thickness (Left) [30]
. Maxima electrical charge in the cloud
cell before discharge (Right).

18
If only the influence of the water is considered, the
breakdown potential, it is not sufficient for a discharge;
namely the values of charge are insufficient to produce
a discharge or lightning flash; even more, the results we
obtained for the charge of a cloud cell are of the order of
20 microamperes, which certainly is a negligible quantity,
when we speak about the charge of a body of very big size
as a cell of thundercloud. But the combination of water in
crystal of ice; with tetrahedral symmetry, together other
pyroelectry aerosol; as the methane, to be increased the
electrical displacement vector (D) inside the cell of thun-
dercloud (Figure 6) upper the breakdown potential; even
for concentrations of methane minor than the composition
in a standard atmospheric.
The geographical explanation of Catatumbo lightning
phenomenology is attributed to the presence of convective
flows, typical of the inter-tropical regions favored by the
diurnal warming and by the thermal gradients between
cloud and ground in the stormy zones with abundant con-
vective movements. But this it`s not sufficient to explain
why the Catatumbo lightning is the first hot spot in light-
ning distribution over our planet. And neither explains the
localized character and permanent for centuries. Notice
that the synoptic meteorological descriptions [5,8]
does not
explain for itself the electrical activity but rather the rain-
fall and the pluviosity. To explain the lightning flashes, it
is needed to evoke other any models which could cause
the separation of charges in Thunderclouds and the trans-
formation between convetive thermal energy into electri-
cal discharges; and the description of the phenomenon as
confluence of air mass at different temperature does not
provide a satisfactory physical description of electrical
activity.
The microphysical descriptions of the thundercloud cell
in term of the Electric Displacement vector (D), provides
an interesting mechanism for to explain the rapid flashes
without transport of particles charges inside of the cloud
(Figure 8).
Initially the molecules (potentially pyroelectric, or
others with permanent dipoles), have any direction in re-
lation to the atmospheric electric field (E). Then they are
aligned with the external field, and consequently, the elec-
tric displacement vector (D) increases within the cloud.
Once the value of D exceeds the breakdown value of the
medium, a discharge is generated towards another cell
of lower potential or towards ground; and the molecules
rotate until they reach their minimum energy (principle
of minimum action), that is to say in an antiparallel sense
to the external field (E). This is an unstable equilibrium;
and the thermal fluctuations of the convective movement,
or the heat flow, cause the disorder of the molecules, mis-
aligning them with respect to the external field (E). After
a while, each molecule tends (due to the torque generated
by the force of the external field E) to realign itself in the
direction of the external field and they would remain there
because it is a stable equilibrium; but D is also increased
reaching the dielectric breakdown and generating the dis-
charge again. And the cycle repeats itself, until the ther-
mal flow ceases or precipitation is generated.
The characteristic time of the flashes, in Catatumbo
Lightning, is the order to milliseconds, furthermore any
mechanism that invoke the transport of particles in the
charge processes, as ice or graupel falling into the cloud
cell, would have a free fall time several orders of mag-
nitude greater than the characteristic times of flashes. I.e
the free fall time is the order to the square root of the cell
length divided by the acceleration of gravity; 20 seconds
for cell of the 1 km of longitude.
Figure 8. Mechanism of discharges in storms clouds by
pyroelectricity (Own source). (a) Initially the molecules
have any arbitrary orientation with respect to the atmo-
spheric electric field E (b) the molecules are aligned with
the external field E increasing the total electric displace-
ment vector D, until reaching the dielectric breakdown
(c) after the discharge after the discharges the molecules
are reoriented, the electric displacement D is minimal and
there are no discharges (d) the convective flows supply
thermal energy, they mess up the intrinsic moments (D0)
in any orientation, and the cycle repeats. Top panel: for
water ice. Bottom panel: for gaseous methane. The rela-
tive level in the picture represents the total energy.
By other hand, in the region of the national park
swamps of “ Juan Manuel”, at south southeast of the Ma-
racaibo lake, the activity of Catumbo Lightning is present
all years, inclosing in the dry station. In Figure 9 we can

19
see the Keraunic the Local Number (NCL) detected by
Lightning Imaging Sensor satellite (LIS) over 2ºx2º ,
center in geography coordinates 9.5 N -72 W, data aver-
aged over a five-year period (2009-2013). We obtain, for
example NCL= 5.08 ± 1.25 rms in December; 1.33± 0.63
for January and 2.59± 1.31for February. Others authors
[5,8]
report values nulls for NCL in dry station, maybe for
an mistake in the localization of epicenter: centered in
Lagunillas or Maracaibo Lake, instead of swamps of “Juan
Manuel”.
Figure 9. Average 2009-2013 of Keraunic the Local
Number (NCL) detected by Lightning Imaging Sensor
satellite (LIS) over 2ºx2º , center in geography coordinates
9.5 N -72 W. (Own source)
During the dry stations, the swarms exhale more meth-
ane towards the planetary boundary layer and could be
trapped in the convective cumulus clouds, showing the
same phenomenology of electrical activity, even when
they are not thunderstorm.
Another question is the fluorescence of methane [35]
.
Fluorescence occurs when the methane absorbs photons,
the electrons are excited into a higher energy state and
subsequently de-excites, emitting light at lower energy
in the visible rangue. The fluorescence is emitted at 430,
434, 486 and 656.3 nm, in the violet-blue and red region
of the visible spectrum [35]
; in according to phenomenol-
ogy picture of Catatumbo lightning (Figure 2 and Figure
3). Also the methane fluorescence to appear associated to
planetary lightning in Jupiter and Saturn [28]
.
Now, we can summarize the qualitative description of
Catatumbo lightning as in the Figure 7.
Figure 10. Phenomenological picture about the charge
mechanism in thunderclouds of the Catatumbo lightning
[30]
. See from pile-dwelling “Punta Chamita” (09º 05.77’
N 71º 42.88’ W 1.96 m asl) in direction to the swamps;
not to the center of Maracaibo lake.
4. Remarkable Conclusions
After two decades of remote sensing of electrometeors,
it is confirmed that the Catatumbo Lightning is the high-
est point of Keraunic activity on the planet. Likewise, the
WWLLN and LIS satellites have made it possible to elab-
orate frequency distribution maps of the “hot” areas where
electro-atmospheric activity is particularly notable. These
advances together with the observation of planetary light-
ning have constituted an advance for the understanding of
the global electric circuit and the role of the thundercloud
in the regeneration of the atmospheric electric field.
The Catatumbo lightning is a persistent electro-atmo-
spheric phenomenon for more than four centuries and
confined to a geographic area south of Lake Maracaibo in
Venezuela. In situ exploratory studies have determined the
epicenter region within the “swamps of Juan Manuel” Na-
tional Park, at the confluence of the Bravo and Catatumbo
rivers in the southeastern region of Lake Maracaibo. In
this region the phenomenon manifests itself even in sum-
mer, as a dry lightning without rainfall and with the char-
acteristic intra-cloud and cloud-cloud discharges without
cloud-ground discharges; which mean frequency of the 28
flash of the lightning per minute. On the shores of Lake
Maracaibo, and within said lake, the thunderclouds that
move from the swamps towards the center of the lake,
present a majority of cloud-ground discharges and the
phenomenological characteristics typical of marine storm
clouds, especially at the beginning of the night.
The unusual activity of Catatumbo lightning requires an
understanding of the generating and charging mechanisms

20
within the cloud cells. These remain controversial since
the characteristic times of occurrence of the flashes is
much shorter than the time of charge generation. Further-
more, the quantification of the charge generated by micro-
physical processes does not seem sufficient to explain the
electric charge acquired by the cloud cell to produce the
lightnings. On the other hand, synoptic explanations based
on confluences of winds at different temperatures (between
day and night and / or between the ground and the lake)
not only do not explain the mechanism of conversion of
available convective energy into electrical energy, but also
predict an unusual electro meteor activity in all tropical
freshwater bodies (lakes-lagoons), which is not observed;
for example in the lake of Valencia in Venezuela.
The presence of methane in several planetary atmo-
spheres with conspicuous keraunic activity, and lacking
hydrological cycles, such as the gaseous planets and the
satellite Titan, suggest that the charging mechanisms have
to do with the pyroelectric properties of aerosols and the
auto polarization properties of the atmospheric molecules.
The calculations show that the electric displacement vec-
tor in water vapor clouds does not seem sufficient to reach
the rupture potential within the thundercloud. However,
the incorporation of methane concentrations even below
the atmospheric composition of dry air, raises the electric
potential of the cloud by two orders of magnitude and also
provides a microphysical mechanism for the electrifica-
tion of the clouds, consistent with the rapid frequency of
the flashes of the Catatumbo lightning.
However, it is still far from the complete understanding
of the phenomenon since it requires in situ explorations
that allow determining the amount of methane and other
pyroelectric aerosols within the convective clouds of the
Catatumbo lightning.
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22
ARTICLE
Study on the Causes of Rural Lightning Disaster and Countermea-
sures of Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction
Zhiqing Yuan*
Lightning protection center of Henan Zhumadian Meteorological Bureau, Henan, 46300, China
Article history
Received: 24 February 2021
Accepted: 22 March 2021
With the development of the time and the progress of economy, great
changes have taken place in the environment. In recent years, it is common
to see bad weather, such as hurricane, drought, lightning and so on. The
emergence of these weather has the greatest impact on farmers and crops,
especially the lightning weather, not only that, but also sometimes cause
personal injury. In face of the frequent occurrence of bad weather in recent
years and its harm and threat to China's agriculture, rural areas, personnel,
etc., the author makes a detailed study on the causes of rural lightning
weather, analyzes the lightning protection measures in rural areas and their
shortcomings, and summarizes the relevant improvement measures.
Keywords:
Lightning disaster
Cause analysis
Lightning mitigation measures
Lightning protection status
1. Introduction
In recent years, there are many events caused by light-
ning disasters, especially in rural areas. Taking Jiangxi
Province as an example, Jiangxi Province is a thunder-
storm prone area. According to the statistics of Jiangxi
Meteorological Department, there were 5093 lightning
disasters in Jiangxi Province from 2004 to 2012, and 463
people died of lightning disasters. Among them, in 2006
and 2007, the number of lightning casualties ranked first
in China for two consecutive years. The statistics of light-
ning casualties in the past 10 years show that the average
annual number of casualties is about 850, and the number
of deaths is about 450, while the rural area accounts for
92.3% of the total number of casualties. According to the
statistics of Guangxi typical examples of lightning disas-
ters, 2006-2009 Among the lightning disasters occurred in
Guangxi in, 93.2% of the deaths occurred in rural areas,
92.8% of the deaths occurred in rural areas, 91.6% of the
injuries occurred in rural areas, 52.4% of the damaged
houses occurred in rural areas, and 38.6% of the direct
economic losses occurred in rural areas. For example,
at 17:00-18:00 on August 28, 2006, a bungalow without
lightning protection device on the mountain floor near ma-
jiong village, Dadong Town, Qinzhou City, Guangxi was
struck by lightning, causing two people to die on the spot
and five people to be injured; on May 25, 2007, Xingye
Village Primary School in Yihe Town, Kaixian County,
Chongqing was hit by lightning, causing seven prima-
ry school students to die and 44 students to be injured,
among them five people to be seriously injured; on June
25, 2007, the lightning struck the bungalow near majiong
village, Dadong Town, Qinzhou City, Guangxi Province,
Five people were killed and one injured when a lightning
Zhiqing Yuan,
Lightning protection center of Henan Zhumadian Meteorological Bureau, Henan, 46300, China;
Email: 13087086737@163.com

23
strike struck a hillside Pavilion in xiaolongping, Zhiwan
village, Panshi Town, Yueqing City, Jiangsu Province.
Lightning protection awareness or lightning protection
measures are not in place. After the investigation, the
author found that lightning disasters will also cause great
losses to the economy. In rural areas, farmers “depend on
mountains and rivers”, and the quality of crops is up to
fate. So far, once natural disasters occur, they will inevi-
tably cause a lot of losses to crops and directly affect the
farmers’ economic income. Therefore, in order to recover
more losses and save more people’s lives, starting from
the lightning protection measures in rural areas, according
to the current causes of lightning disasters, the existing
rural lightning protection measures are analyzed and in-
novated, so as to protect the interests of society, economy
and people.
2. Analysis of Lightning Protection Develop-
ment in Rural Areas
Since the beginning of this century, many lightning
disasters have occurred frequently, especially in rural
areas. The author studies the loss caused by the disaster,
combined with the national statistical data and local typ-
ical lightning disaster cases, and finds that the proportion
of lightning disaster in rural areas from 2006 to 2009 is as
high as 93.3%, of which 91.2% caused personal injury; in
terms of economic loss, lightning disaster caused direct
economic and housing losses, according to the relevant
investigation and combined with the basis 56.3% of the
losses came from housing and 37.6% from direct econom-
ic losses [1]
.
At present, there are many typical cases of lightning
disaster in China. The most typical one is a lightning di-
saster in 2006. A house in a village in Guangxi was struck
by lightning due to the lack of lightning protection device,
resulting in many deaths and injuries. In 2007, several
primary school students in a village in Chongqing were
struck by lightning, resulting in 7 deaths and many inju-
ries. In the same year, Jiangsu Province was hit by light-
ning A hillside pavilion was struck by lightning, resulting
in many deaths and injuries.
At present, many parts of our country, especially rural
areas, villages and other areas are suffering from lightning
disaster.
3. Study on the Main Causes of Lightning Di-
saster
Similar events occur in China and other countries. It
can be seen how terrible and harmful lightning disasters
are. According to the lightning disaster events in recent
years, the author will further analyze why the natural di-
sasters occur and why the natural disasters appear more
frequently in rural areas. On the one hand It is to clarify
the main causes of its frequent occurrence, on the other
hand, to provide some improvement and innovation basis
for lightning protection measures. The following is the
summary of the main causes of lightning disaster in rural
areas of China, as follows.
3.1 Cultural Literacy of Rural Population is Low,
the Awareness of Lightning Protection is Weak,
and the Understanding of Lightning Disaster is
Lack
Our country started as a farmer, because the level of
cultural knowledge of farmers is generally low, the reserve
of scientific knowledge is relatively lack. Lightning pro-
tection awareness is relatively weak, lack of self-protec-
tion awareness. The implementation of lightning protec-
tion and disaster reduction work of relevant departments
is not in place. The economic level of rural areas is low,
and the construction of relevant lightning protection facil-
ities is insufficient. Compared with the design, installation
and acceptance of lightning protection devices of build-
ings in cities, there is a big gap. In rural areas, due to the
wide area, scattered buildings and backward economy, the
management of lightning protection and disaster reduction
needs to be improved.
The root of Chinese people is farmers, but with the
continuous progress of China’s economy and politics,
more and more rural areas are moving towards urban-
ization. From the end of last century to now, the pace of
China’s urbanization process is still accelerating, people’s
living standards, teaching and education, quality and lit-
eracy are constantly changing and improving, but there
are still many villages, prefectural and county-level cities
in China At the same time, these places are also relatively
backward. Just because of this, the generation has little
understanding of lightning disaster and relatively weak
ideology to avoid it. The education passed from genera-
tion to generation leads to the insufficient understanding
of most people in rural areas, which is one of the main
reasons for frequent lightning disasters in rural areas [2]
.
Most people in rural areas also attach great importance to
natural disasters, but they don’t know enough about light-
ning. On the other hand, it comes from the foolish idea
that the thunder is God’s anger because they “deal with”
with farming all the year round, and this kind of lightning
can’t be prevented. As time goes on, their attention has
been weakened, and no matter houses or other buildings
or commanding heights are lacking Lightning protection
equipment and measures [3]
.

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