On the NOx production by laboratory electrical discharges and lightning

Different approaches are used in estimating the global production of NOx by lightning flashes, including field measurements carried out during thunderstorm conditions, theoretical studies combining the physics and chemistry of the electrical discharges, and measurements of NOx yield in laboratory sparks with subsequent extrapolation to lightning. In the latter procedure, laboratory data are extrapolated to lightning using the energy as the scaling quantity. Further, in these studies only the return strokes are considered assuming that contributions from other processes such as leaders, continuing currents, M components, and K processes are negligible. In this paper, we argue that the use of energy as the scaling quantity and omission of all lightning processes other than return strokes are not justified. First, a theory which can be used to evaluate the NOx production by electrical discharges, if the current flowing in the discharge is known, is presented. The results obtained from theory are compared with the available experimental data and a reasonable agreement is found. Numerical experiments suggest that the NOx production efficiency of electrical discharges depends not only on the energy dissipated in the discharge, but also on the shape of current waveform. Thus, the current signature, can influence extrapolation of laboratory data to lightning flashes. Second, an estimation of the NOx yield per lightning flash is made by treating the lightning flash as a composite event consisting of several discharge processes. We show that the NOx production takes place mainly in slow discharge processes such as leaders, M components, and continuing currents, with return strokes contributing only a small fraction of the total NOx. The results also show that cloud flashes are as efficient as ground flashes in NOx generation. In estimating the global NOx production by lightning flashes the most influencing parameter is the length of the lightning discharge channel inside the cloud. For the total length of channels inside the cloud of a typical ground flash of about 45 km, we estimate that the global annual production of NOx is about 4Tg(N). (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.