Analysis of the Initial Stage Intracloud Lightning Using the Pulse Location Technique Based on the Fast Electric Field Change

Using both fast and slow electric field change sensors and field mill, multi-station observations on lightning flashes over China inland plateau areas were conducted during the summer of 2004. All of the stations were synchronized by GPS with a time-resolution of ±50 ns. Using the different time of arrival (DTOA) and based on the fast electric field change sensor, a lightning radiation location technique was developed. Radiation pulses in the initial stages of five intracloud (IC) lightning discharges which occurred on 20 August were analyzed. The results indicate that the technique developed could effectively locate the lightning radiation sources. Furthermore, the lightning discharges were compared with the Doppler radar data. The results show that the radiation sources were well associated with the storm development. When the storm was at the mature stage with an echo top of about 10.9 km, the radiation sources ranged from 5.2 to 8.3 km above mean sea level; when the storm gradually became weaker, with echo top of about 7.9 km, the radiation sources ranged from 3.0 to 5.9 km. In particular, one of the IC lightning discharges ranged from 3.0 to 4.9km during the dissipation stage of the storm. The results also indicate that the radiation sources were closely associated with the high reflectivity region (25-50 dBZ) of the storm, which, to some extent, demonstrates the reliability of the location results, thereby showing that multi-station observations of fast electric field change sensors could be a useful tool for monitoring the storm development. Location errors from radiation sources were also compared with the radar data and the results of a simple simulation. It was found that the errors were getting smaller when the radiation sources approached the center of the detection network,and vice versa. Compared with the limited experimental observations, the simulation results were found capable of effectively re°ecting the location errors.