閃電活動是研究地面大氣電場的一個重要課題。除此之外更可藉以觀測地震前岩石圈-大氣層-電離層的耦合作用。統計研究顯示台灣地區1993到2004年規模大於5.0的地震，在地震發生前震央附近會有頻繁的閃電事件發生，且在淺層地震中，規模越大，地震前閃電現象就越顯著。本篇研究利用NASA的熱帶降雨量測任務衛星(Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, TRMM) 所搭載之閃電成像感測器(Lightning Imaging Sensor, LIS)，觀測1998年1月到2015年3月，共計17年間全球熱帶區域210筆規模大於7.0之地震，其前後30天的閃電活動，並利用統計方法加以分析討論。結果顯示當地震震源越淺、地震規模越大時，地震閃電異常現象更為顯著，且影響之範圍也越大。利用與分析地震相同之方法分析火山噴發期間之閃電活動，可以發現當VEI越大時，火山噴發後產生之閃電越明顯，VEI較小時則此現象不明顯。

The lightning activity is one of the key parameters to understand the atmospheric electric fields near the Earth’s surface and the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling during the earthquake preparation period. A statistical study shows more lightning before magnitude M≥5.0 earthquakes in Taiwan during 1993–2004. In this paper, the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is used to statistically exam the lightning activity 30 days before and after 198 M>=7.0 earthquakes in the tropical area of the globe during the 17-year period of 1998-2014. The statistical results show that lightning activities over epicenter significantly enhance a few days before the shallow earthquakes. Moreover the size of the area around the epicenter with the statistical significance of lightning activity enhancement is proportional to the earthquake magnitude.
Using the same analytical method to analyze the volcanic lightning. The result show that lightning activity will enhance after the volcano eruption in the VEI 4 volcano eruption events.

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