Daily Peak Activity of the African Lightning Chimney Based on Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Lightning Imager (LI), WWLLN and Schumann Resonance (SR) Observations
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Lightning activity is strongly concentrated in tropical continental ‘chimneys’, among which the African lightning chimney stands out as the most intense globally. However, until recently, the incomplete and spatially uneven detection efficiency of ground-based lightning networks, together with the limited spatio-temporal coverage of satellite observations, have constrained the quantitative characterization of African lightning activity, particularly on daily timescales. Since July 2024, the Lightning Imager (LI) onboard the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites has provided the first continuous, high-temporal-resolution observations of lightning activity over Africa and Europe from geostationary orbit. In this paper, we examine, based on the first year of MTG LI observations, how consistently daily peak activity in the African lightning chimney is represented in different observational datasets. For this purpose, we use MTG LI group and flash data, together with World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) stroke observations and Schumann resonance (SR) measurements, and focus on two key parameters: the daily peak activity and its timing. We find that daily peak activity derived from MTG flashes shows a strong positive correlation with SR intensity (r = 0.749), while WWLLN stroke observations show weaker correspondence. The timing of the daily peak is broadly consistent across the datasets, with the best agreement observed between MTG flashes and SR intensity. For all datasets, daily peak activity is strongly correlated with total daily activity. The strong correspondence between MTG flashes and SR intensity supports the use of both datasets in characterizing the daily activity of the African lightning chimney.
Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, China Meteorological Administration, Institute of Urban Meteorology, Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, HUN-REN Institute of Earth Physics and Space Science, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungarian Research Network
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214696778