We describe our parameterization of lightning NOx production in the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble Model and the results obtained in relation to airborne measurements taken in and around storm anvils during the 1996 STERAO-A field program in Colorado. The results of this investigation suggest that in the storms considered NOx production per IC flash substantially exceeded what would be expected using commonly accepted values of production per IC flash relative to that per CG flash.
Cloud top height has commonly been used as a predictor of total flash rate in mesoscale and global chemical transport models. We have tested such algorithms using observed flash rate data and find that despite reasonable prediction of cloud tops by the model, the cloud top height was not a good predictor of flash rate. A wide range of observed flash rates were present for a given cloud top altitude. Upward cloud mass fluxes from the convective parameterizations yielded better predictions of flash rates. Results of such a new flash rate algorithm have been compared with NOx and NOy data from the upper troposphere observed during the 1997 SONEX field campaign over North America and the North Atlantic.
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