Characterizing lightning NO x production in the Ebro Valley with meteosat 12 LI and LMA observations
- 1Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Granada, Spain)
Abstract
Lightning is one of the main sources of NO x in the Earth's atmosphere, yet there is considerable variability in NO x production during thunderstorms. In this study, we combined optical lightning data from the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Lightning Imaging (LI) instrument, which provides information on the occurrence rate and physical characteristics of lightning flashes, measurements from an extended Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) consisting of 24 sensors, lightning measurements from the Lightning Location System (LLS) of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (MSC), and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) cloud and NO ₂ research products to investigate lightning NO x emissions in the Ebro Valley (Spain). WRF-Chem simulations were used to calculate the necessary air mass factors and to subtract the NO x not produced by lightning from the TROPOMI measurements, allowing a more accurate estimation of lightning-induced NO x . We found positive relationships between lightning-produced NO x per flash and several lightning properties, including flash channel length, radiance, footprint, duration and the length of the optical continuous signal detected from space. These results highlight the importance of combining detailed lightning observations with atmospheric modeling to quantify NO x emissions from thunderstorms.
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BibTeX
@article{perezinvernon2026characterizing,
title = {{Characterizing lightning NO x production in the Ebro Valley with meteosat 12 LI and LMA observations}},
author = {Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón and Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez and Oscar van der Velde and Joan Montanyà and Jesús Alberto López Trujillo and Nicolau Pineda and Diego Loyola and Sora Seo and Christoph Knote and Alexandre O. Fierro and Heidi Huntrieser},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/acp-26-14277-2026},
url = {https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/26/14277/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Characterizing lightning NO x production in the Ebro Valley with meteosat 12 LI and LMA observations
AU - Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón
AU - Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez
AU - Oscar van der Velde
AU - Joan Montanyà
AU - Jesús Alberto López Trujillo
AU - Nicolau Pineda
AU - Diego Loyola
AU - Sora Seo
AU - Christoph Knote
AU - Alexandre O. Fierro
AU - Heidi Huntrieser
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
DO - 10.5194/acp-26-14277-2026
UR - https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/26/14277/2026/
AB - Lightning is one of the main sources of NO x in the Earth's atmosphere, yet there is considerable variability in NO x production during thunderstorms. In this study, we combined optical lightning data from the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Lightning Imaging (LI) instrument, which provides information on the occurrence rate and physical characteristics of lightning flashes, measurements from an extended Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) consisting of 24 sensors, lightning measurements from the Lightning Location System (LLS) of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (MSC), and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) cloud and NO ₂ research products to investigate lightning NO x emissions in the Ebro Valley (Spain). WRF-Chem simulations were used to calculate the necessary air mass factors and to subtract the NO x not produced by lightning from the TROPOMI measurements, allowing a more accurate estimation of lightning-induced NO x . We found positive relationships between lightning-produced NO x per flash and several lightning properties, including flash channel length, radiance, footprint, duration and the length of the optical continuous signal detected from space. These results highlight the importance of combining detailed lightning observations with atmospheric modeling to quantify NO x emissions from thunderstorms.
SN - 1680-7324
ER -