资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Africa is one of the most productive lightning regions on Earth, yet it has a lower terrestrial gamma ray flash (TGF)-to-lightning ratio especially compared with Central America. In this paper, we have analyzed the global distribution of different meteorological parameters in order to explain the TGF/lightning ratio asymmetry. We show here that a drier surface and larger Convective Available Potential Energy in Africa may produce thunderstorms with intense electric charge regions but elevated in the atmosphere and closer to each other, which allows for higher flash rates and less energetic, shorter, and smaller flashes. The results we present here suggest that continental thunderstorms in Africa more rarely fulfill the lightning and thundercloud requirements for TGF production inferred from observations and models.