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A detailed study is reported of the distribution of global midnight lightning from 60°S to 60°N for 365 consecutive days. The period covered is from 1 September 1977 to 31 August 1978. More than 32 000 lightning locations obtained from DMSP photographic data are plotted with an accuracy of 100 km. The locations are in good agreement with features of the general circulation. Land-ocean lightning ratios vary from 2.2 (September) to 4.2 (July) with a mean of 3.2. If these values are corrected for the earth's land-ocean area ratio of (2.4)−1, the land-ocean lightning ratios range from 5.3 (September) to 10 (July) with a mean of 7.7.
Orville et al. (Mon,) studied this question.