Potential Urban Barrier Effect to Alter Patterns of Cloud‐to‐ground Lightning in Beijing Metropolis

The urban barrier effect is one possible physical mechanism by which the urbanization alters the spatial distribution of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning activity in a city. There is a gap in the preceding research on an urban barrier effect to alter patterns of CG lightning in Beijing, and the urban morphology does not receive enough attention as an important influencing factor. By combining lightning location data, ground meteorological data, and urban morphology datasets, we identify a possible urban barrier effect from the perspective of CG lightning in Beijing during 2010-2017. Analysis of one typical thunderstorm on 13 July 2017 revealed that the barrier effect might result in a bifurcation of low-level airflow and splitting of the convergence line. A more important finding was the modulation of the barrier effect by the scale and density of the built-up area, and the numerical simulation experiments further confirmed this potential association.