This study describes the daily lighting cycle and the annual thunderstorm distribution as observed by the Precipitation Radar (PR), the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite over South America. Based on a TRMM measurements from 1998 through 2011, a database of individual thunderstorms have bee...

Thunderstorms of pre-monsoon season (April-May) over Kolkata (22 ̊32' N, 88 ̊20' E), India are invariably accompanied with lightning flashes, high wind gusts, torrential rainfall, occasional hail and tornadoes which significantly affect the life and property on the ground and aviation aloft. The societal and economic impact due to such storms made accurate prediction of the weather phenomenon a s...