一次雹暴的闪电特征和电荷结构演变研究

综合利用SAFIR3000三维闪电定位系统的全闪定位资料与雷达结合对2005年5月31日发生于北京的一次冰雹过程的闪电活动和电荷结构演变特征进行了综合分析.结果表明:该雷暴的闪电活动有两次活跃期,第一个活跃期产生了降雹,降雹结束后,闪电活动突然减少,之后的活跃期产生了更多的闪电,其中一部分处于云砧区.闪电活动峰值超前降雹5 min左右,闪电活动中的地闪仅占6.16%,但正地闪占总地闪的比例达20%,且降雹前的正地闪比例较降雹后要高·降雹发生后,正地闪很少发生.降雹阶段,参与放电的主要电荷区表现为反极性结构,-40℃左右区域为参与放电的主负电荷区,-15℃左右区域为参与放电的主正电荷区,在正电荷区之下,短暂存在一个较弱的负电荷区.降雹结束后,电荷结构经历了持续的快速调整过程,在第2次闪电活跃期,参与放电的主要区域表现为正常的三极性结构,即上正-中负-下正,受西风气流的影响,此三极性结构出现倾斜.动力和微物理过程的分析表明,闪电活动和电荷结构的特征与雷暴云内的动力、微物理过程紧密相关.文中对反极性电荷结构形成的可能机理进行了讨论,并且认为,具有强烈上升气流的灾害性天气可能更易形成反三极性的电荷结构,并在下部两个电衙区的作用下产生较多的正地闪.     

新一代天气雷达与闪电定位仪资料在一次区域性暴雨过程中的分析应用

根据一次大范围暴雨天气过程的闪电定位资料和多普勒雷达资料,利用统计和对比分析的方法,发现了闪电发生频数、强度和雷达回波强度在时间序列上有较好的一致性;在雷达回波发展的不同阶段,闪电发生的位置与雷达强回波位置有时相同,有时偏离,有时甚至无闪电发生;雷达回波速度场分析表明,在低层存在不利于对流发展的环境风场特征时,降水回波在向测站移动的过程中趋于消散,闪电频数也随着减少;在降水回波速度辐合区,对应闪电活动频繁。     

基于IEC 62305-2的雷电灾害风险管理系统设计

介绍了一种基于国际标准IEC62305-2雷击灾害风险评估方法的雷击灾害风险管理系统的功能和结构。系统基于基础数据库,实现雷电灾害信息的检索与查询、数据统计以及输出,可为防灾减灾提供依据。整个系统主要由评价分析模块、基础数据库模块、决策支持模块和输出模块等组成。风险评估分析模块具有雷灾风险识别、风险评价、风险等级划分功能。决策支持模块能够快速、准确提供雷电灾害的评价结果,提出灾害防护措施,计算灾害补偿的范围和数额,以及对防灾工程和拟建防灾工程进行评价。     

LINET—An international lightning detection network in Europe

During the past years a VLF/LF lightning detection network (LINET) was developed at the University of Munich, which provides continuous data for both research and operational purposes. In particular, the network introduces five new features: a) total lightning capability: both cloud-to-ground strokes (CG) and cloud lightning (IC) are measured; b) low-amplitude reporting: weak lightning events from discharge channel with currents well below 5 kA are detected within the central part of the network, whereby IC events dominate; c) new 3D-discrimination: a time-of-arrival method is utilized to separate CG from IC with good reliability, provided that the sensor baseline does not exceed ~ 250 km; d) IC emission height: for each cloud event a height is determined which is thought to reflect the central region of the involved channel; and e) optimised location accuracy: due to precision and combined action of all influential network components, complemented by site-error corrections, the position accuracy of strokes reaches an average value as small as ~ 150 m, whereby false locations (‘outliers’) rarely occur. During international co-operations LINET has been deployed in four continents: Europe (initially Germany), South America (area of Bauru, Brazil), Australia (around Darwin), and Central Africa (Benin). Since the features quoted above could be verified in the tests, a 65-sensor network was established in Europe and started on May 1, 2006, in co-operation with the service company nowcast. LINET covers a wide area approximately from longitude − 10° to 25° to latitude 35° to 66°; it is available for scientific projects and officially utilized by the German Weather Service for operational purposes. Meanwhile, the network was extended by deployment of additional sites so that it comprises about 90 sensors in 17 countries.     

Lightning and Doppler radar observations of a squall line system

A typical squall line with damaging wind and hailstones occurred on 28 April 2006 in Shandong Province, middle eastern China, and caused great economic loss. The characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning (CG) in the squall line were studied in detail by combining the data from the ground-based CG location network, two Doppler radars and the Lightning Imaging Sensor on the TRMM satellite. Results show that positive CG flashes accounted for 54.7% of the total CG flashes. During the initial developing stage, the CG flash rate was lower than 0.5fl min^{− 1} and most of the CG flashes were positive. It increased significantly, up to 4.5fl min^{− 1}, along with the rapid development of the squall line, and the percentage of positive CG was more than 75% during this period. The CG flash rate began to decrease but the percentage of negative CG flash increased gradually and exceeded that of positive CG during the mature and dissipating stages. Positive CG flashes tended to occur on the right flank and negative ones on the left flank. Strong wind at the surface occurred in or near the regions with dense positive CG flashes. Almost all positive CG flashes occurred near the strong radar echo regions, in the front parts of the squall line. However, the negative CG flashes almost exclusively occurred in the regions with weak and uniform radar echoes. The total flash rate in the storm was very high, up to 136fl min^{− 1}, and its ratio of intracloud flashes (IC) to CG flashes was 35:1. Dense positive CG flashes corresponded to updraft regions, they did not occur in the core of the updraft, but just behind and close to the main updraft instead. The rear inflow jet, between 3 and 6 km, played an important role in the formation of the bow echo and very strong wind at surface. The CG distribution features in the squall line were obviously different from that of an ordinary MCS. The charge structure could be roughly described as an inverted charge structure.     

Characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning in warm-season thunderstorms in the Central Great Plains

In July 2005, a field campaign was conducted in the Central Great Plains to obtain 60-field/s video imagery of lightning in correlation with reports from the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and broadband electric field waveforms from the Los Alamos Sferic Array (LASA). A total of 342 GPS time-stamped cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes were recorded in 17 different sessions, and 311 (91%) of these were correlated with reports from the NLDN. Only 6 of the 17 recording sessions were dominated by flashes that lowered negative charge to ground, and 11 were dominated by positive CG flashes. A total of 103 flashes recorded on video were correlated with at least one NLDN report of negative CG strokes, 204 video flashes were correlated with one or two positive stroke reports, and 4 had bipolar reports. In this paper, we will give distributions of the estimated peak current, I_p, as reported by the NLDN, of negative and positive first strokes that were recorded on video, the multiplicity of strokes that were recorded on video, and the number of ground contacts per flash that were resolved on video. 41 (40%) of the negative flashes produced just a single-stroke on video, and 62 (60%) showed two or more strokes. The observed multiplicity of negative flashes averaged 2.83, which becomes about 3.14 after correcting for the finite time-resolution of the video camera. 195 (96%) of the positive flashes produced just a single-stroke on video, and 9 (4%) showed two strokes; therefore, the observed multiplicity of positive flashes averaged 1.04. Five out of 9 (56%) of the positive subsequent strokes re-illuminated a previous channel, and 4 out of 9 (44%) created a new ground contact. Simultaneous video, LASA, and NLDN measurements also allowed us to examine the classification of NLDN reports during 3 single-cell storms (one negative and two positive). Based on the LASA waveforms, a total of 204 out of 376 (54%) NLDN reports of CG strokes were determined to be for cloud pulses. The misclassified negative reports had |I_p| values ranging from 3.8 kA to 29.7 kA, but only 58 (24%) of these had |I_p| > 10 kA, and only one misclassified positive report had I_p > 20 kA. Radar analyses showed that most of the negative and positive CG strokes that were recorded on video were produced within or near the convective cores of storms. The radar imagery also showed that single-cell storms tended to produce one polarity of CG flashes at a time, and that such storms could switch rapidly from negative to positive CG flashes when the reflectivity was near maximum. Multiple-cell storms produced both negative and positive flashes over a broad region, but each polarity tended to cluster near regions of high-reflectivity.     

Study of the total lightning activity in a hailstorm

A thunderstorm that developed over northeastern Spain on 16 June 2006 is analyzed. This severe thunderstorm produced hailstones as large as 40 mm and had a lifetime of 3 h and 30 min. Radar cross-sections show strong vertical development with cloud echo tops reaching an altitude of 13 km. The specific characteristics of the lightning activity of this storm were: (i) a large amount (81%) of negative cloud-to-ground (−CG) flashes with very low peak currents (< 10 kA in absolute value), (ii) a very large proportion of intra-cloud (IC) flashes with an IC/CG ratio reaching about 400, (iii) a large number of “short” IC flashes (with only 1-VHF source according to SAFIR detection), (iv) a large increase of the −CG flash rate and of the CG proportion near the end of the storm. The rate of −CG flashes with a low peak current were observed to evolve similarly to the rates of IC flashes. Most of them have been assumed to be IC flashes misclassified by the Spanish Lightning Detection Network (SLDN). They have been filtered as it is usually done for misclassified +CG flashes. After this filtering, CG flash rates remained very low (< 1 min^− 1) with +CG flashes sometimes dominant. All the particular lightning activity characteristics similar to those observed in the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) campaigns support the hypothesis that this thunderstorm could have had an inverted-polarity or complex charge structure. The maximum IC flash rate (67 min^− 1) peaked 24 min before the presence of reflectivity higher than 60 dBZ. The IC activity abruptly decreased during the period when reflectivity was dramatically increasing. The time of maximum reflectivity observed by radar was consistent with the times of reported hail at the ground.     

Lifetime of the thunderstorm electric energy in the global atmospheric circuit and thunderstorm energy characteristics

The lifetime of electric energy in the atmosphere is introduced and investigated as is the total electric energy of the atmosphere related to the total mean rate of electric energy dissipation. This lifetime, as determined from general estimations and convenient analytical expressions, turns out to be very small – from about 10 to about 100 s, depending on the assumptions on the control parameters of principal sources in the global electric circuit. In particular the energy lifetime is less than the relaxation time of the “global condenser” and field relaxation time near the ground surface. It is explained by the high dissipative rate of the electric energy in the atmosphere, taking into account that the regions mainly contributing to the total energy and its dissipative rate are connected to the altitudes of active parts of electrified (thunderstorm) clouds in the atmosphere with exponentially increasing conductivity.     

吉林地区一次雷暴云个例电和云微物理特征的模拟分析

利用三维强风暴动力一电藕合数值模式, 结合闪电定位仪资料、雷达回波资料及降水资料,分析了吉林地区一次雷暴云个例在发生第一次闪电前云内电场的发展情况及微物理变化过程,并与青藏高原一次典型雷暴过程进行了对比.结果表明:云发展成熟时,云中呈现上正下负及云下部次正的三极性分布,主负电荷区稳定在-10℃层附近,次正电荷区浓度较大;上升气流穿过-15℃层之上开始强起电;云中最大电场出现在上升速度达到最大值后回落的阶段;闪电频数与云发展的高度及回波强度有关,回波强度＞45 dBz时,云发展越高,闪电频数越大,云顶高度＜6 km时,闪电发生较少;青藏高原雷暴具有与我国北方雷暴明显不同的特征.     

0.1~40 MHz地闪、 云闪及NBE事件的辐射场频谱特征分析

利用宽带傅立叶分析法对2008年7月30日和8月4日两次雷暴过程中, 距离观测点5~20 km范围内的55次负地闪回击过程, 33次云内闪电过程以及20次双极性窄脉冲事件（NBE）的电磁辐射信号进行了观测分析, 得到地闪回击、 云闪放电初始阶段以及双极性窄脉冲事件在0.1~40 MHz频带宽度下的电磁辐射能量谱密度。结果表明, 这三类闪电放电过程的辐射频谱波形均呈现出随频率增加、 幅值减小的趋势, 但在辐射强度和衰减速率上存在一定的差异。负地闪回击幅频波形在6~28 MHz频段上衰减速率相对缓慢; 云闪初始阶段在全频带上始终遵循f-1.2~f-1.4之间的衰减率递减, 且其频谱幅值与地闪回击的辐射能量谱幅值相差不大; NBE事件在0.1~40 MHz频带中辐射能量谱幅值基本都明显大于其他两类闪电放电过程, 特别是在10 MHz以上的HF、 VHF频带上其差异可达到20 dB。