Lightning Physics and The Study of Climate Change and Sustainability Available to Purchase

By definition, climate models investigate relatively long time scales and large geographic regions. As a result, such models use relatively large brush strokes when painting a picture of how climate change will impact our planet. However in order to determine sustainability of a particular system, often times, the short term response of a more limited system to large scale, or slowly varying changes must be understood. The physics involved in that system may be quite different from the physics used in climate modeling. In this paper, we will discuss the role of climate change on lightning parameters and show the importance of understanding physical and dynamic meteorology when investigating the effects of climate change. We will use this example to illustrate the broader point that the physics required to investigate climate change and sustainability cannot be restricted to those topics immediately relevant to climatology.