The file available for download contains 13 files. Each file contains one month of data. The files contain 12 months of data at 1x1 degree resolution, based on an 8-year average of the period 1983-1990 of global NOx production due to lightning activity. In addition a file with the annual average total is provided.
GEIA
Document noxlig.txt 4 Aug
1999
NOx from lightning / 8-year average of the period 1983-1990 / monthly / kg NOx-N/cell/month
/ 1 level
Documented in: Price, C.G., J.E. Penner and M.J. Prather, 1997,
NOx from lightning, Part I: Global distribution based on lightning physics,
J. Geophys. Res., 102:D5, 5929-5941.
Contact on contents: Dr. Colin Price, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978,
Israel
Tel: +972-3-6406 029 Fax:
+972-3-640 9282 E-mail: cprice@flash.tau.ac.il
Contact on technical matters: Jeroen Peters, RIVM, P.O. Box 1, NL-3720 BA
Bilthoven
Tel: +31-30-274 4116 Fax:
+31=3--274 4417 E-mail:
jeroen.peters@rivm.nl
The files contain 12 months of data at 1x1 degree resolution, based on an 8-year
average of the period 1983-1990 of global NOx production due to lightning
activity. In addition a file with the annual average total is provided. All
months have all been normalised to equal length.
The NOx production is total NOx production, both from cloud-to-ground (CG) and
intra-cloud (IC) flashes. The annual total is 12.2 Tg NOx-N/year.
File names: noxligmm.1a
with: mm = month number (01 .. 12) or an (= annual total)
| mm | period | minimum | maximum | total |
| 01 | Jan | 1.6E-02 | 5.164E+05 | 9.1070E+08 |
| 02 | Feb | 3.7E-02 | 4.308E+05 | 8.1877E+08 |
| 03 | May | 1.4E-02 | 4.693E+05 | 9.5111E+08 |
| 04 | Apr | 2.8E-02 | 4.373E+05 | 9.0684E+08 |
| 05 | May | 2.1E-02 | 4.462E+05 | 1.0338E+09 |
| 06 | Jun | 1.0E-02 | 6.085E+05 | 1.2133E+09 |
| 07 | Jul | 1.8E-02 | 6.012E+05 | 1.4422E+09 |
| 08 | Aug | 1.3E-02 | 4.971E+05 | 1.2738E+09 |
| 09 | Sep | 1.0E-02 | 4.500E+05 | 1.0104E+09 |
| 10 | Oct | 8.0E-03 | 4.783E+05 | 9.1367E+08 |
| 11 | Nov | 1.8E-02 | 4.431E+05 | 8.5023E+08 |
| 12 | Dec | 2.1E-02 | 5.032E+05 | 8.8457E+08 |
| an | Total | 1.7E-01 | 4.451E+06 | 1.2210E+10 |
-----------------------------------------
Number of lines in the files (including header of 11 lines):
43081 noxlig01.1a
44446 noxlig02.1a
45061 noxlig03.1a
44988 noxlig04.1a
45828 noxlig05.1a
49953 noxlig06.1a
49874 noxlig07.1a
49628 noxlig08.1a
49008 noxlig09.1a
45733 noxlig10.1a
42884 noxlig11.1a
42017 noxlig12.1a
58039 noxligan.1a
-----------------------------------------
Note: For estimating NOx emissions at altitude, it is not that important where
the NOx is produced in the storm, but rather where the NOx is found once the
thunderstorm disappears. The updrafts and downdrafts in the storm redistribute
the NOx and the final distribution (which should be used in tracer models) is
very different to the initial distribution. A paper trying to parameterize this
effect should be coming out in the future. Ken Pickering of the Univ. of
Maryland has been looking at this point and could perhaps help on this matter.
Price et al. find that the resultant NOx distributions are C-shaped, with high
NOx concentrations in the upper troposphere and the lower troposphere (basically
against the two boundaries of the troposphere). Models may do some sensitivity
studies to see how the vertical distribution effects their results.
Then
perhaps use the results of Pickering et al.
------------------------------------------------
Dr.
Colin Price
Department
of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences
Tel
Aviv University
Ramat Aviv 69978
ISRAEL
tel: 972-3-6406029
fax: 972-3-6409282
e-mail: cprice@flash.tau.ac.il
---------------------------------------------------------------
File composed by Jos.Olivier@rivm.nl in cooperation with CPrice@flash.tau.ac.il.)
File: read_lig.1a
Version: 1.3
Date: 4.8.99