Intraregional Comparisons of the Near-Storm Environments of
Thunderstorms with Typical and Anomalous Charge Structure
Abstract
We gridded eleven years of cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes detected by the
U.S. National Lightning Detection Network during the warm season in 15
km x 15 km x 15 min grid cells to identify storms with substantial CG
flash rates clearly dominated by flashes lowering one polarity of charge
to the ground or the other (+CG flashes versus –CG flashes). Previous
studies in the central United States had found that the gross charge
distribution of storms dominated by +CG flashes included a large upper
negative charge over a large middle level positive charge, a reversal of
the usual polarities. In each of seven regions spanning the contiguous
United States (CONUS), we compared the values of 17 environmental
parameters of storms dominated by +CG flashes with those of storms
dominated by –CG flashes. These parameters were chosen based on their
expected roles in modulating supercooled liquid water content (SLWC) in
the updraft because laboratory experiments have shown that SLWC affects
the polarity of charge exchanged during rebounding collisions between
riming graupel and small ice particles in the mixed phase region. This,
in turn, would affect the vertical polarity of a storm’s charge
distribution and the dominant polarity of CG flashes. Our results
suggest that the combination of parameters conducive to dominant +CG
flash activity and, by inference, to anomalous storm charge structure
varies widely from region to region, the lack of any favorable parameter
value in a given region being offset by favorable values of one or more
other parameters.