El-Niño and La-Niña are believed to change the intensity and frequencies of extreme
weather events globally. The present study aims to analyse the impact of El-Niño and La-Niña on the
lightning activities of cloud systems and their associated precipitation and thermodynamic indices
over the Eastern India regions (Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal) during the pre-monsoon season
(March–May). Eastern India receives catastrophic thunderstorm events during the pre-monsoon
season. The results suggest that the number of lightning flashes was higher in the El-Niño years
than in the La-Niña periods, which helps convective activities to be developed over the study region.
The precipitation variations showed similar patterns during El-Niño and La-Niña periods, but the
magnitudes were higher in the latter. Results from the analysis of thermodynamic indices show that,
during the La-Niña phase, the convective available potential energy (CAPE), convective inhibition
(CIN), severe weather threat index (SWEAT), humidity index (HI), and total totals index (TTI) values
increased, while the cross total index (CTI) and K index (KI) decreased. In contrast, the vertical
total index (VTI) and Boyden index (BI) values showed less significant changes in both El-Niño and
La-Niña periods. The anomalies of flash rate densities over most parts of our domain were positive
during the El-Niño years and negative during the La-Niña years. Precipitation anomalies had a
higher positive magnitude during the La-Niña phase, but had spatial variability similar to the El-Niño
phase. The anomalies of most of the thermodynamic indices also showed noticeable differences
between El-Niño and La-Niña periods, except for the HI index. El-Niño periods showed higher
lightning and increased values of associated thermodynamic indices over eastern India, indicating
more pronounced convective systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:88482 |
| Date | 06 December 2023 |
| Creators | Kumar Sahu, Rajesh, Choudhury, Goutam, Vissa, Naresh Krishna, Tyagi, Bhishma, Nayak, Sridhara |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 2073-4433, 10.3390/atmos13081261 |
Page generated in 0.0141 seconds