Comparison of the Lightning Observations with the National Radar Reflectivity Mosaic

Lightning observations are found to be a good indicator of convections. To quantify the quality of lightning observations and examine the possible relationship between lightning observations and the weather Doppler radar observations, lightning observation are compared with the 3D national reflectivity mosaic. Both lightning flash rate and Amplitude of Lightning Strike (AMPS) are compared with composite reflectivity in the CONUS domain. The locations of lightning observation match the location of composite reflectivity in general. Furthermore, the lightning data are divided into 4 types according to the lighting flash type (cloud to cloud flash, CC; cloud to ground flash, CG) and polarization feature (positive flash and negative flash), which are CC positive, CC negative, CG positive and CG negative flash. The relationships of the 4 types lightning flash rates with radar reflectivity are studied separately. The detail will be presented at the conference.