Elizabeth DiGangi-March 16

Microphysical and Kinematic Characteristics of Regions of Flash Initiation in a Supercell Storm and a Multicell Storm Observed During the DC3 Field Program

Lightning initiation in thunderstorms requires that the local electric field magnitude exceed breakdown values somewhere, and this tends to occur between regions of positive and negative charge, where the largest electric field magnitudes tend to occur.  Past studies have demonstrated that, near updrafts, storms with very strong updrafts tend to elevate regions of charge and of flash initiations higher, as well as to have more flashes initiated by small pockets of charge, than in storms with much weaker updrafts. In all thunderstorms, the source of these charge regions is generally thought to be microscopic charge separation via the relative growth rate noninductive mechanism, followed by macroscopic charge separation via sedimentation, although other charge generation mechanisms can contribute to charge in some regions. Charge generation and lightning initiation are therefore inherently dependent on the microphysical and kinematic characteristics of a given storm. This study compares the results of a hydrometeor classification algorithm applied to C-band mobile radar data with the dual-Doppler wind fields for two storms, the 29-30 May 2012 supercell storm and the 16 June 2012 multicell storm, observed during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry experiment.  Additionally, mixing ratios calculated by a diabatic Lagrangian analysis retrieval from the dual-Doppler winds are shown for the supercell case. Using these data, we then compare the inferred microphysical and kinematic characteristics of regions in which the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array indicated that flashes were initiated in these two very different storms.