Doppler radar echoes of lightning and precipitation at vertical incidence

Abstract

Digital time series data at 16 heights within two storms were collected at vertical incidence with a 10‐cm Doppler radar. On several occasions during data collection, lightning echoes were observed as increased reflectivity on an oscilloscope display. Simultaneously, lightning signals from nearby electric field change antennas were recorded on an analog recorder together with the radar echoes. Reflectivity, mean velocity, and Doppler spectra were examined by means of time series analysis for times during and after lightning discharges. Spectra from locations where lightning occurred show peaks due to the motion of the lightning channel at the air speed. These peaks are considerably narrower than the ones due to precipitation. Besides indicating the vertical air velocity that can then be used to estimate hydrometeor‐size distribution, the lightning spectra provide a convenient means to estimate the radar cross section of the channel. Subsequent to one discharge, we deduce that a rapid change in the orientation of hydrometeors occurrred within the resolution volume.