Multifractal Characteristics of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Intensity Observed in AMMA-CATCH Station (Northern Benin)

Abstract

Cloud-to-Ground (CG) lightning intensity time series recorded in northern Benin, during days of monsoon season (summer 2006), has been deeply explored using multifractal framework. The results suggest the existence of strong multifractal characteristics in lightning intensity. However, detrending the data reduces the degree of multifractality. The multifractality arises from both a fat-tailed probability density function and longrange temporal correlations. But, the most dominant multifractality in lightning intensity series depends strongly on the kind of detrending that is retained from the profile during the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). These findings have allowed us to understand and characterize the complexity of lightning intensity structure in the network.