A decade of cloud‐to‐ground lightning in Canada: 1999–2008. Part 2: Polarity, multiplicity and first‐stroke peak current
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We summarize the temporal and spatial characteristics of polarity, multiplicity and first‐stroke peak current of approximately 23.5 million cloud‐to‐ground (CG) lightning flashes detected by the Canadian Lightning Detection Network for the period 1999–2008. Regional differences in these parameters reflect the complex nature and structure of thunderstorms across the country. The annual mean percentage of positive CG flashes was found to be lowest in eastern Canada (11%) and highest in northern Canada (17%). The data do not show any trends over the years in any region. The monthly distribution of positive CG flashes reflects a strong seasonality in all regions, with higher values in winter than in summer. Areas of more than 25% positive flashes are observed along the west coast of British Columbia, in Yukon extending southeast into central British Columbia, in southern Manitoba, northern Quebec, Newfoundland and off the coast of Nova Scotia. The percentages of single‐stroke positive and negative flashes for northern (western, eastern) Canada are 93% and 63%, (89% and 48%, 90% and 50%), respectively. The monthly distribution of multiplicity for negative CG flashes peaks between 2 and 2.4 strokes per flash in the summer and early fall in all regions. The multiplicity of positive flashes (slightly higher than 1 stroke per flash) shows little variation throughout the year in all regions. The annual variation of median negative and positive first‐stroke peak currents reflects a latitudinal dependence over the past decade. The lowest values for each polarity are observed in southern Canada and the highest values occur in the North. The data do not show any trends in peak currents over the years in the eastern or western regions of Canada. The monthly median first‐stroke peak currents for both polarities are strongest in winter and reach a minimum during summer in all regions. Large current flashes ≥100 kA are usually detected in summer and comprise less than 1% of the average annual CG flashes detected in Canada. Large current flashes with stroke multiplicity ≥10 are usually associated with negative polarity. These CG flashes are mostly detected in western Canada.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".