Contributions of lightning to long-term trends and inter-annual variability in global atmospheric chemistry constrained by Schumann resonance observations

Wang, Xiaobo; Zhang, Yuzhong; Bozóki, Tamás; Liang, Ruosi; Xie, Xinchun; Zhao, Shutao; Wang, Rui; Zhao, Yujia; Sun, Shuai

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8929-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8929-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8929-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 15

Research article

|

14 Aug 2025

Research article |

| 14 Aug 2025

Contributions of lightning to long-term trends and inter-annual variability in global atmospheric chemistry constrained by Schumann resonance observations

Xiaobo Wang, Yuzhong Zhang, Tamás Bozóki, Ruosi Liang, Xinchun Xie, Shutao Zhao, Rui Wang, Yujia Zhao, and Shuai Sun

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8929-2025-supplement

Data sets

The WWLLN Global Lightning Climatology and timeseries (WGLC) (v2022.0.0) J. O. Kaplan and K. H.-K. Lau https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6007052

OMI/Aura Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Total and Tropospheric Column 1-orbit L2 Swath 13x24 km V003 N. A. Krotkov et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2017

Trends in globally-averaged CH4, N2O, and SF6, Version 2025-07 X. Lan et al. https://doi.org/10.15138/P8XG-AA10

NRT Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on International Space Station (ISS) Science Data T. Lang https://doi.org/10.5067/LIS/ISSLIS/DATA109

Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on TRMM Science Data R. J. Blakeslee https://doi.org/10.5067/LIS/LIS/DATA201

Model code and software

geoschem/GCClassic: GEOS-Chem Classic 14.0.2 (14.0.2) The International GEOS-Chem User Community https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7383492

eamarais/erc-uptrop: tropomi-ut-no2-1.1.0 (1.1.0) E. A. Marais and J. F. Roberts https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4058442

eamarais/erc-uptrop: tropomi-ut-no2-1.1.0 (Version 1.0.0) E. A. Marais and J. F. Roberts https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3979211

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Short summary

Schumann resonance observations are used to parameterise lightning NO_x emissions to better capture global lightning trends and variability. Updated simulations reveal insignificant trends but greater variability in lightning NO_x emissions, impacting tropospheric NO_x, O₃, and OH. Lightning generally counteracts non-lightning factors, reducing the inter-annual variability of tropospheric O₃ and OH. Variations in global lightning play an important role in understanding the atmospheric methane budget.