Lightning events could cause ionospheric disturbance on performance of radio signals which could lead to errors. The objective of the study is to investigate the response of vertical total electron content (VTEC) during lightning activity over the Antarctic Peninsula for the year 2017. The lightning data were obtained from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) while the lightning flash data were obtained from the Lightning Detector (LD350) which can detect positive and negative cloud-to-ground (+CG and -CG) flashes. The VTEC data were analyzed from the GPS's ground based station for Carlini (CARL), O'Higgins (OHI2) and Palmer (PALV). The yearly lightning distribution was 117 strikes during low geomagnetic storms. The average ΔVTEC obtained was less than 1 TECU because very low number of lightning activity was detected which contributed to a very low increment of VTEC. The lightning flash per hour was in the range of 1200–1700 in February until April which indicates a very active lightning flash activity. From May until December, less than 200 flashes per hour were detected due to change in season. The lightning distribution for -CG was above 45% and for +CG, it was below 45%. The correlation between lighting flash and VTEC during low geomagnetic activity shows that 19% of the total events was a weak negative and weak positive correlation each as a result of VTEC complexity and thundercloud variation. VTEC enhancement could be contributed by halo film which was involved in ionization and strong sprite that penetrates through the ionosphere.

闪电事件可能会对电波性能造成电离层干扰，从而导致错误。该研究的目的是调查2017年南极半岛闪电活动期间垂直总电子含量（VTEC）的响应。闪电数据来自世界闪电定位网（WWLLN），而闪电数据则来自是从闪电探测器（LD350）获得的，该探测器可以探测到正向和反向的云对地（+ CG和-CG）闪光。从GPS地面站的Carlini（CARL），O'Higgins（OHI2）和Palmer（PALV）分析了VTEC数据。在低地磁风暴中，每年的闪电分布为117次雷击。所获得的平均ΔVTEC小于1 TECU，因为检测到的雷电活动数量非常低，这导致VTEC的增量非常低。从2月到4月，每小时的闪电数量在1200-1700之间，这表明闪电活动非常活跃。从5月到12月，由于季节变化，每小时不到200次闪光。-CG的闪电分布高于45％，+ CG的闪电分布低于45％。在低地磁活动期间，闪光与VTEC之间的相关性表明，由于VTEC复杂性和雷云变化，总事件的19％具有弱的负相关和弱的正相关性。参与电离的光晕膜和穿透电离层的强子画面可以促进VTEC的增强。