Articles | Volume 25, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2937-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2937-2025
ACP Letters
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11 Mar 2025
ACP Letters | Highlight paper |  | 11 Mar 2025

Lightning declines over shipping lanes following regulation of fuel sulfur emissions

Chris J. Wright, Joel A. Thornton, Lyatt Jaeglé, Yang Cao, Yannian Zhu, Jihu Liu, Randall Jones II, Robert Holzworth, Daniel Rosenfeld, Robert Wood, Peter Blossey, and Daehyun Kim

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Cited articles

Abbott, T. H. and Cronin, T. W.: Aerosol invigoration of atmospheric convection through increases in humidity, Science, 371, 83–85, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc5181, 2021. a, b
Bennartz, R. and Rausch, J.: Global and regional estimates of warm cloud droplet number concentration based on 13 years of AQUA-MODIS observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9815–9836, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9815-2017, 2017. a
Blossey, P. N., Bretherton, C. S., Thornton, J. A., and Virts, K. S.: Locally Enhanced Aerosols Over a Shipping Lane Produce Convective Invigoration but Weak Overall Indirect Effects in Cloud-Resolving Simulations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, 9305–9313, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078682, 2018. a, b
Boucher, O., Randall, D., Artaxo, P., Bretherton, C., Feingold, G., Forster, P., Kerminen, V.-M., Kondo, Y., Liao, H., Lohmann, U., Rasch, P., Satheesh, S., Sherwood, S., Stevens, B., and Zhang, X.: Clouds and Aerosols, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, 571–892, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.016, 2013. a
Cao, Y., Zhu, Y., Wang, M., Rosenfeld, D., Liang, Y., Liu, J., Liu, Z., and Bai, H.: Emission Reductions Significantly Reduce the Hemispheric Contrast in Cloud Droplet Number Concentration in Recent Two Decades, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 128, e2022JD037417, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037417, 2023. a
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Executive editor
Our understanding of the impact of aerosol particles on deep-convective clouds is still incomplete. Earlier research found increased lightning above shipping lanes and hypothesized that the ship emissions support the development of deep-convective cloud systems. The present study investigates the effect of a sevenfold reduction in sulphur content of shipping fuel, implemented following the International Marine Organisation 2020 regulation. A significant decrease in lightning activity is found over shipping lanes in combination with a reduction of both the concentration and the size of the emitted particles, providing further evidence of a strong connection between shipping missions, deep-convective cloud development, and lightning activity. This highlights the need to resolve the still unclear acting mechanisms.
Short summary
Aerosol particles influence clouds, which exert a large forcing on solar radiation and freshwater. To better understand the mechanisms by which aerosol influences thunderstorms, we look at the two busiest shipping lanes in the world, where recent regulations have reduced sulfur emissions by nearly an order of magnitude. We find that the reduction in emissions has been accompanied by a dramatic decrease in both lightning and the number of droplets in clouds over the shipping lanes.
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