Characteristics of lightning trends in Peninsular Malaysia from 2011 to 2016

Abstract

Lightning is a powerful natural phenomenon, known to affect power utilities, structures, and either injured or kill a number of people and might cause large financial losses to the country both directly and indirectly. Therefore, an accurate and reliable lightning detection system is essential to enhance knowledge and awareness to forecast and identify occurrences of lightning activity. This paper focusses on the lightning trends at southern region of Peninsular Malaysia from 2011-2016 which utilized historical data from Lightning Detection System Network System, operated by TNB Research Sdn Bhd. The mean distributions, the percentage and the peak current of the lightning strikes were investigated. The relationship of the lightning trends with the main monsoon season were also evaluated. The evaluation results show that the monsoonal variation due to the shift of monsoon seasons (April-May and October-November) increased the lightning activity at the studied region. Furthermore, it is also found that a significant increase in lightning activity were observed due to the system upgrades in 2016 which reflected by the sensitivity in location accuracy and detection efficiency of the system.