Abstract
The structure of a bow‐echo system that crossed southeast France on 24 September 2012 during the first Special Observation Period of the Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX) is investigated from a three‐dimensional lightning mapping array (LMA), an operational lightning network, and operational polarimetric radar observations. Lightning observations reveal that 97% of flash initiation and 93% of flash propagation occurred within the convective region. Through combining LMA and radar‐derived microphysical data it is also shown that lightning initiation events and propagation mostly occurred in regions containing graupel (initiation = 70%, propagation = 58%), ice (initiation = 22%, propagation = 33%), and to a lesser extent hail (initiation = 6%, propagation = 5%). The detailed analysis of the lightning activity during two periods of contrasted electrical activity suggests that wet hail growth processes and/or charge redistribution within the cloud may have had a negative impact on lightning initiation occurrences and propagation. The most active periods in terms of lightning activity occurred in conjunction with a vigorous, terrain driven, updraught that transported graupel particles above a height of 12 km.
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