Transient Luminous Events and Their Relationship to Lightning Strokes Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Comparison Regions

This study investigates the relationship between transient luminous events (TLEs) and lightning strokes, and the characteristics of TLE-producing thunderstorms over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and compares them to those over the Yangtze-River Delta (YRD) and East China Sea (ECS) where at the same latitude during 2005–2015. The data were collected using the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) and the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) observations. Elves, sprites and halo (abbreviated as ESHs) were dominantly detected over the southeastern TP (∼88%), mostly in August and September (∼81%). Different from the southeastern TP, the detected sprites and sprite-to-lightning stroke ratios over the YRD were larger in spring than those in summer and autumn. Halos were frequently observed in August over all study regions. Blue jets were only detected over the YRD. The density of TLEs over the southeastern TP was three times smaller than those over the YRD and ECS, while the density of elves over the southeastern TP was slightly larger than that over the YRD. The average energy of TLE-related lightning strokes based on WWLLN was found to be larger over the southeastern TP compared to the YRD and ECS. The ESH-producing clouds over the southeastern TP had a larger scale with a lower lightning frequency than those over the YRD.