Lightning data observed with lightning location system in Guang-Dong Province, China

This paper presents an investigation into cloud-to-ground lightning activity data collected by a lightning detection system in the Guang-Dong Province, the southernmost in China. Annual lightning days are acquired and ground flash density maps are constructed from the database, which contains the information of more than one million flashes. The lightning days are compared with annual thunderstorm days collected by the Guang-Dong Meteorological Agency, and a weak correlation is noted. The correlation between ground flash density and thunderstorm day is studied, and an empirical formula is presented. The relationship between transmission line faults and ground flash density is discussed in this paper too. It is noted that the correlation with the faults caused by lightning is relatively high. The correlation coefficient does not significantly vary with the threshold of discharge current set for constructing the map of revised ground flash density.