Origin of an Uncommon Multiple‐Stroke Positive Cloud‐to‐Ground Lightning Flash With Different Terminations

Abstract

AbstractAn uncommon three‐stroke positive cloud‐to‐ground (+CG) lightning flash was observed by synchronous multifrequency radiation sensors, and the three‐dimensional development of the channel was carefully mapped. Results show that three positive strokes grounded at different points approximately 4–8 km apart and time intervals between neighboring +CG strokes were 85 and 222 ms, respectively. This +CG flash was preceded by an intracloud (IC) discharge. The locations of the termination points on the ground were just below the preestablished horizontal IC discharge channels, and the three strokes were linked with each other through sharing horizontal negative leader channels inside the cloud. There were stepping pulses less than 0.4 ms before the first and second return strokes (RSs), and their location results were distributed nearby the following RS, indicating that the pulses might be associated with the attachment process. The first and second positive strokes occurred when the horizontal in‐cloud negative channel stopped extending, while the third positive stroke occurred below the opposite end of an advancing negative leader in the cloud. The above results suggest that the downward positive leader preceding the strokes possibly developed either from different decayed leader channels or from the opposite end of an advancing leader channel. A high‐speed camera captured a downward positive attempted leader from another +CG flash, revealing how a downward positive leader incepted from a horizontal negative lightning channel.