Recent Advances in Lightning Research

Dear Colleagues,

Lightning is a powerful electrical discharge that takes place in the Earth’s atmosphere. Events that take place during a lightning discharge are of interest to physicists, engineers, and environmental scientists. First, inside the cloud and during the leader stage of a lightning discharge, electrons begin to accelerate due to relativistic energies, leading to the production of energetic radiation including X-rays and gamma rays. In order to understand these effects, it is necessary to probe into the physics of lightning discharges. Second, during a lightning discharge that strikes the Earth, a large electric current impulse is injected into the impact point of the strike. Unless properly diverted into the ground, this current can cause significant damage at the point of impact on structures. Third, the propagation of this high-current impulse along the lightning channel gives rise to a strong electromagnetic field that interacts with human-made electrical and electronic systems causing disturbance and damage. Fourth, during the propagation of the current, the lightning channel is heated to around 30,000 K, leading to the dissociation of both oxygen and nitrogen atoms. As the channel cools, these atoms combine in different ways, leading to the production of different chemical species in the atmosphere. These chemical species are of interest in the study of the chemistry of the atmosphere and global changes in temperature. Finally,  electromagnetic fields generated by lightning flashes interact with the upper atmosphere, generating upper-atmospheric electrical discharges known as sprites, bluejets, and elves. These events are also of interest when analysing the effects of lightning on the chemistry of the atmosphere. 

Significant advances in the different areas of lightning research have been made in recent years. The aim of this Special Issue is to update the current state-of-the-art research into lightning and lightning protection.

Accordingly, the Special Issue will address all areas of lightning research, including the physics of a lightning flash and its modelling, protecting structures from lightning, systems which locate potential lightning strikes, the indirect effects of lightning on electromagnetic fields, including electromagnetic coupling models, and the ways in which the Earht's atmosphere can be modified by lightning.

We welcome contributions in the form of original research papers or review papers related to any of these subjects.

Prof. Dr. Vernon Cooray
Prof. Dr. Farhad Rachidi
Prof. Dr. Marcos Rubinstein
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• lightning initiation
• physics of lightning leaders and return strokes
• return stroke, stepped-leader, and dart-leader models
• lightning protection of structures and power lines
• lightning electromagnetics
• electromagnetic coupling models
• energetic radiation from lightning
• upper atmospheric electrical discharges