Characteristics of Positive Lightning As Observed In Temperate and Tropic Regions: A Review

Abstract

Positive lightning contributes less than 10 % of cloud to ground lightning activities worldwide. Despite the low percentage, this discharge had attracted considerable attention from scientist around the globe because of some reasons, which among them are; higher current amplitude as compared to its negative counterpart and found to be related to transient luminous event known as sprites. Since Malaysia lies in the equator, the number of thunderstorm days is very high and numerous lightning activities had been recorded every year. Unfortunately, studies on lightning activity in Malaysia especially the positive type is very limited thus the characteristics of this discharge remain poorly understood. This paper served to review all findings of positive lightning research that had been conducted so far in the temporal region and some in the tropics to fulfil the needs of a comprehensive research on positive lightning especially in Malaysia. Data from USA, Sweden, Canada, Sri Lanka and Malaysia were compiled, compared and presented in this paper. It was found that the characteristics of positive lightning recorded in the temperate region is different than those data in the tropics. Therefore, a profound and extensive study is suggested to be conducted to further understand the mechanism that leads to this disparity.