Significantly Increased Lightning Activity Over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relation to Thunderstorm Genesis

Under the context of global warming, we identified a significant increase in lightning activity in the last two decades over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the highest plateau on earth, based on two data sets. The largest rise of lightning activity was found over the region with high lightning density represented by the eastern TP at a rate of 0.072 +/- 0.069 fl km(-2) yr(-1) during 1996-2013 from Optical Transient Detector/Lightning Imaging Sensor. World Wide Lightning Location Network data also showed a remarkable increase in lightning strokes during 2010-2019 in the maximum lightning density region, while the change was insignificant in the low lightning density region. Further investigations revealed that most of the TP region experienced a significant increase in thunderstorm frequency, which was responsible for the increase in lightning activity, rather than an increase in thunderstorm intensity. Increased lightning activity implies a potential risk to human beings and the fragile ecosystem over the TP in a warmer climate.