Executive Summary : | The Northeastern and Eastern parts of India experience significant number of thunderclouds during the premonsoon and monsoon seasons. These thunderclouds produce lightning strikes, which cause a extensive damage to the life and property. Based on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of last 10 years (2010-2019) over India, a total number of 26924 fatalities due to lightning strikes have been reported (NCRB, 2020). The region covering the Eastern and Northeastern states of India contributes more than half of the (52%) total fatalities. Previously limited research on lightning and electrical characteristics of thunderclouds has been carried out over the region by using the stand alone EFM and Lightning Detector (Guha and De, 2009; Gopalakrishnan et al.,2011; Biswasharma et al., 2021). So far, study on the Space-Time evolution of lightning and electrical properties of thunderclouds is not carried out in a comprehensive manner over the Indian region in general and over the Northeastern and Eastern parts of the country in particular. Since 2015 onward, Indian Institute Of Tropical Meteorology, Maharashtra (IITM), Pune, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, has established a lightning location network (LLN) with 83 sensors all over the country, to detect and locate lightning strikes with utmost accuracy. The LLN provides an unique opportunity to study the Space-Time evolution of lightning from thunderclouds, to predict impending lightning occurrence at any given place. Therefore, the proposed research plan is aimed to study the Space-Time evolution of thundercloud lightnings and associated cloud microphysical, thermodynamical and dynamical properties over the Northeastern and Eastern parts of India For this purpose, Cloud-to-ground (CG) and Intra-cloud (IC) flash rate with their polarity will be considered from the LLN. By using the these observations, at the outset, the preferred location of the genesis of the thunderclouds, their preferred movement track and life cycle duration will be studied. Further, electrical properties of the lightning in terms of ± CG and ± IC lightning will be investigated to get the comprehensive charge structure of the thunderclouds. To get the better insight of charge mechanism of the thunderclouds, cloud microphysical properties will be studied with the help of Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model simulated parameters namely, (i) total liquid water mass mixing ratio (Q_l) as a function of cloud water (qc) and rain water (qr) mixing ratios and (ii) ice fractional mixing ratio 〖(Q〗_i) which is a function of snow, graupel and ice mixing ratios. Lightning Potential Index will be estimated from these parameters. Further, thermodynamical and dynamical parameters will also be considered for analysis. The proposed research will help for better forecasting of the impeding lightning hazard. |