Available lightning data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) was analyzed to determine the temporal variation and spatial distribution of lightning strikes (flashes) over the Republic of Azerbaijan. Each detectable flash is considered an atmospheric event. Nearly about 2074 flashes for the warm and cold months from 2017 to 2020 were combined to form four years “lightning dataset” of a thundery-warned region, with its scattered cities and districts with a population of nearly 10 million. A “GIS-oriented procedure” was intently applied by importing all lightning observations to create appropriate distinct digital layers needed for the subsequent temporal-spatial analysis. A range of analytic tools mainly for analyzing and mapping existing spatial patterns among data layers have been applied. The resulting spatial indexes have established various temporal-spatial patterns, indicating clusters of lightning frequency and associate values, statistically significant inside of Azerbaijan lands. Lastly, in recognizing the most flash risk areas, a combined fuzzy membership operator was applied to the raster database, based on Kendal Density output layers.
The final results indicated that more than 99% of the flashes occur from April to September with a single peak in June and substantial lightning activity takes place in summer months, indicating a prominent diurnal afternoon peak, in the region. Also, spatial patterns illustrated that the most frequent and energetic lightning events, with the highest radiance values and longest durations, happen over the western and northern parts of the country, mainly over the elevated areas of Karabakh and Caucuses mountains, indicating the highest lightning strike risky areas.

 

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