Identification

Title

Lightning strike locations and characteristics in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, surveyed in June 2022 and October 2023

Abstract

The dataset details the locations and attributes of canopy disturbances in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, that were suspected to have been caused by lightning strikes. Disturbances were located by surveying 23km of trails and assessing whether disturbances (clusters of dead or damaged trees) had damage signatures consistent with lighting. Only disturbances that were thought to potentially have been caused by lightning were recorded. As well as providing a qualitative assessment of the confidence that the damage was caused by lightning, the dataset contains the number of dead and damaged trees in different size classes, as well as the taxonomic identity and degree of crown damage experienced by canopy trees within the putative strike. Photographs of a subset of strikes are also provided. Data were collected as part of the project Lightning in African tropical forests: from tree mortality to carbon dynamics (NE/W003872/1). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec

description: Download a copy of this data

function: download

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec.zip

description: Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec

codeSpace

doi:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Atmospheric Conditions

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

29.1

East bounding longitude

29.3

North bounding latitude

-2.3

South bounding latitude

-2.5

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2022-06-01

End position

2023-10-31

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-12-17

date type

creation

effective date

2024-08-12

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

A total of 23.3km of trails were surveyed in Nyungwe National Park in June 2022, covering the majority of trails accessible from the Uwinka station. Canopy disturbances (i.e. clusters of dead or damaged trees) encountered along these trails were inspected to assess for flashover damage (visually apparent as the defoliation of the two nearest branches of neighbouring trees in a directionally biased pattern). If a tree exhibited potential flashover damage to two or more neighbors, it was selected for more detailed surveys to assess whether patterns of damage were consistent with lightning. The presumptive directly struck tree was identified as the canopy tree at the center of observed flashover damage. Tree-level surveys of lightning damage were conducted for this tree, along with any other tree with a diameter at breast height > 50 cm within the lightning strike area. A subset of trails was resurveyed in October 2023, revisiting existing strike locations on these trails and surveying new disturbances.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services