Observations of Evolving Lightning, Microphysics, and Kinematics for a Supercell, a Multicell, and a Mesoscale Convective System

Abstract

The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field experiment collected data on a variety of storms to investigate the relationships between lightning and other storm processes. This study focuses on the relationships between lightning and storm microphysics and kinematics for a supercell storm, a multicell storm, and a mesoscale convective system. All three storms occurred in Oklahoma, in range of the 3-D Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array (LMA), and were sampled by ground-based mobile radars. 3-D wind fields derived from the mobile radar data and the results of a C-band hydrometeor classification algorithm are compared with gridded lightning parameters, including flash extent density, flash initiation density, mean flash size, and charge distribution for each storm. A series of horizontal and vertical cross-sections is shown for each of the three cases, along with bulk analyses of the microphysical and updraft characteristics compared with the gridded lightning parameters. The relationships between all these datasets and the implications these results have on the electrification of thunderstorms will be discussed. In general, evidence of the noninductive charging mechanism generating the most charge was present in all three cases, and many of the lightning-storm intensity relationships investigated by past studies apply to all three of the storms studied here.