Science Explorer Interactive view Map

Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena

Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena is a research topic within Astronomy and Astrophysics. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 9.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the global distribution, physics, and effects of lightning, including topics such as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, the atmospheric electric circuit, climate change, thunderstorm dynamics, lightning detection systems, electromagnetic fields associated with lightning, and simulation of lightning-related phenomena.

  • Lightning
  • Distribution
  • Physics
  • Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes
  • Atmospheric Electric Circuit
  • Climate Change
  • Thunderstorms
  • Detection Systems
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Simulation
Research works
24k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+15%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.1k and 319 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 1.1k works
  2. 2 United States 319 works
  3. 3 India 163 works
  4. 4 Russia 136 works
  5. 5 Brazil 134 works
  6. 6 Japan 124 works
  7. 7 Germany 87 works
  8. 8 Italy 83 works
  9. 9 France 73 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 68 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 46.9%United States: 14.3%India: 7.3%Russia: 6.1%6 others listed: 25.4%47%largest
China1,051 · 46.9%United States319 · 14.3%India163 · 7.3%Russia136 · 6.1%6 others listed569 · 25.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Xi'an Jiaotong University publishes the most Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research, followed by Wuhan University and North China Electric Power University.

Who are the leading researchers in Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena include Adrian Pană and Hirofumi Akagi.

  1. 1 Adrian Pană United States 3.9k citations
  2. 2 Hirofumi Akagi Japan 3.3k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research done?

The largest centres of Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Wuhan (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Beijing.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 247 works
  2. 2 Xi'an China 94 works
  3. 3 Wuhan China 86 works
  4. 4 Guangzhou China 68 works
  5. 5 Shanghai China 65 works
  6. 6 Nanjing China 61 works
  7. 7 Moscow Russia 46 works
  8. 8 Chengdu China 45 works
  9. 9 Tokyo Japan 43 works
  10. 10 Chongqing China 38 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Beijing30.2 works23×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena than the world average.

See Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena on the map

Where is the best place to study Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena?

Among universities, judged by research, The University of Texas at Dallas, Xi'an Jiaotong University and Wuhan University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 8.09%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →The University of Texas at Dallas: 10, 27.5%Xi'an Jiaotong University: 56, 3.8%Wuhan University: 55, 4.5%Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: 22, 13.6%North China Electric Power University: 52, 0.5%Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya: 10, 13.4%University of the Witwatersrand: 19, 4.0%Chongqing University: 28, 5.8%Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology: 12, 7.3%Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP): 24, 0.5%The University of Te…Aristotle University…Wuhan UniversityXi'an Jiaotong Unive…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 The University of Texas at DallasUnited States 66.127.5%15.7×10
2 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 60.93.8%11.1×56 +118.4%
3 Wuhan UniversityChina 56.34.5%14.3×55 +33.9%
4 Aristotle University of ThessalonikiGreece 55.413.6%14.1×22 -15.6%
5 North China Electric Power UniversityChina 50.30.5%24.8×52 +30.6%
6 Universitat Politècnica de CatalunyaSpain 49.813.4%10.1×10 -1.8%
7 University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 47.54.0%14.8×19 +32.4%
8 Chongqing UniversityChina 46.25.8%8.0×28 +57.4%
9 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 42.27.3%9.4×12 +21.6%
10 Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)Brazil 41.60.5%10.1×24 -6.8%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 15% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2018. The fastest-growing topics are Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.