Abstract
Superbolt lightning strokes were first identified by Bobby Turman in 1977 (https://doi.org/10.1029/JC082i018p02566) and shown to have optical power which is two or three orders of magnitude larger than the median lightning stroke power. Recently Holzworth et al (2019 see https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030975 ) examined global lightning using the WWLLN (World Wide Lightning Location Network) and reported the global distribution of superbolts. Since the Holzworth et al paper, we have collected several more years of data on superbolts, which now allows us to clearly identify some unexplained features of the superbolt distribution. This paper will present evidence that the low latitude portion of the superbolt distribution clearly follows along the Earth's magnetic equator (not geographic equator). Furthermore, by comparing to sunspot and cosmic ray data we will show that superbolt occurrence is correlated with sunspot activity, and inversely correlated with cosmic ray flux at Earth.