Correlations between lightning and characteristics of convective cells in tropical thunderstorms

The characteristics of convective cells and the lightning flash rates in thunderstorms are investigated by using 10 years of TRMM observations. First, the Precipitation Features (PFs) are defined by contiguous raining area detected by TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR). Then, the convective cells in each PF are defined by contiguous pixels with PR reflectivity greater than 30 dBZ at 6 km, or contiguous convective pixels identified by the TRMM 2A23 algorithm. The numbers of lighting flashes detected by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) inside and outside these convective cells are summarized. The numbers of flashes inside and outside the convective cells are compared with the characteristics of convective cells and the PFs in which they are embedded. The horizontal distances from lightning flashes to the geographical center of convective cells are investigated as well. These analyses are completed for several different regions in the tropics, including central Africa, Amazon and tropical oceans.