Total flash density and the intracloud/cloud‐to‐ground lightning ratio over the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Analysis of the total, intracloud and cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash density and the intracloud (IC) to cloud‐to‐ground (CG) ratio (Z = IC/CG) over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) has been performed using 5 years of combined data from the Spanish lightning detection network and the NASA Optical Transient Detector (OTD). The spatial distributions of total flash density and CG flash density show significant differences, especially on the northwest of the IP, the southern island of the Balearic Islands, and the southern/southeastern Mediterranean coastline. The spatial average of the annual value of Z is 3.48. A correlation was found between Z and latitude (correlation coefficient: −0.9). A relationship between Z and the total flash density was also observed (Z ∼ f0.5; correlation coefficient: 0.48). The spatial pattern of Z is reminiscent of that of the percentage of positive CG‐flashes, and high Z values seem to occur where the percentage of positive flashes is high.