On the Role of Continuing Currents in Lightning-Induced Fire Ignition

Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón*, Jose V. Moris, Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez, Martin Füllekrug, Gianni Boris Pezzatti, Marco Conedera, Jeff Lapierre, Heidi Huntrieser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Lightning flashes are an important source of wildfires worldwide, contributing to the emission of trace gases to the atmosphere. Based on experiments and field observations, continuing currents in lightning have since a long time been proposed to play a significant role in the ignition of wildfires. However, simultaneous detections of optical and radio signals from fire-igniting lightning confirming the role of continuing currents in igniting wildfires are rare. In this work, we first analyze the optical signal of the lightning-ignited wildfires reported by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper over the Contiguous United States (CONUS) during the summer of 2018, and we then analyze the optical and the Extremely Low Frequency signal of a confirmed fire-igniting lightning flash in the Swiss Alps. Despite data uncertainties, we found that the probability of ignition of a lightning flash with Continuing Current (CC) lasting more than 10 ms is higher than that of cloud-to-ground lightning in CONUS. Finally, we confirm the existence of a long CC (lasting about 400 ms) associated with a long-lasting optical signal (lasting between 2 and 4 s) of a video-recorded fire-igniting lightning flash.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2023JD038891
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Volume128
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Authors.

Funding

The authors would like to thank Noah Michael Berckum, who recorded the video of the lightning‐induced wildfires in the Valais. In addition, the authors thank NOAA for providing GLM lightning data, Earth Networks and Nowcast GmbH for providing lightning measurements and the National Interagency Fire Center for providing lightning‐ignited wildfire data. FJPI acknowledges the sponsorship provided by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the sponsorship provided by Junta de Andalucía under Grant POSTDOC‐21‐0005. The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/PI22/11910026 (FJPI). JVM acknowledges the support from a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Government of Asturias (Spain) through FICYT (AYUD/2021/58534). The work of MF is was sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) Grant NMG/R1/180252 and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) under Grants NE/L012669/1 and NE/H024921/1. Additionally, this work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under projects PID2019‐109269RB‐C43 (F.J.P.I. and F.J.G.V) and PID2022‐136348NB‐C31 (F.J.P.I. and F.J.G.V) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe.” FJPI and FJGV acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” from the Grant CEX2021‐001131‐S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. The authors would like to thank Noah Michael Berckum, who recorded the video of the lightning-induced wildfires in the Valais. In addition, the authors thank NOAA for providing GLM lightning data, Earth Networks and Nowcast GmbH for providing lightning measurements and the National Interagency Fire Center for providing lightning-ignited wildfire data. FJPI acknowledges the sponsorship provided by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the sponsorship provided by Junta de Andalucía under Grant POSTDOC-21-0005. The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/PI22/11910026 (FJPI). JVM acknowledges the support from a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Government of Asturias (Spain) through FICYT (AYUD/2021/58534). The work of MF is was sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) Grant NMG/R1/180252 and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) under Grants NE/L012669/1 and NE/H024921/1. Additionally, this work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under projects PID2019-109269RB-C43 (F.J.P.I. and F.J.G.V) and PID2022-136348NB-C31 (F.J.P.I. and F.J.G.V) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe.” FJPI and FJGV acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” from the Grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

FundersFunder number
government of Asturias
State Agency for ResearchCEX2021-001131-S
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
Natural Environment Research CouncilNE/L012669/1, NE/H024921/1
Natural Environment Research Council
Royal SocietyNMG/R1/180252
Royal Society
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónMCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2022‐136348NB‐C31, PID2019‐109269RB‐C43
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Fundación para el Fomento en Asturias de la Investigación Científica Aplicada y la TecnologíaAYUD/2021/58534
Fundación para el Fomento en Asturias de la Investigación Científica Aplicada y la Tecnología
European Regional Development Fund
Junta de AndalucíaPOSTDOC‐21‐0005
Junta de Andalucía
la Caixa” Foundation100010434

    Keywords

    • continuing current
    • lightning
    • lightning-ignited fire
    • lightning-ignition efficiency
    • remote sensing
    • wildfires

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