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Thirty-five sprite-producing lightning flashes were recorded in nine nights in different seasons at the east coast of Spain with a 3D Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) since July 2011. A low-frequency time-of-arrival network provided data on emissions from return strokes and intracloud processes and a very-high-frequency interferometer network produced complementary lightning data. This study analyzes the bidirectional development of flashes in order to understand the positioning and timing of the positive cloud-to-ground stroke (+CG) and its consequences for charge neutralization by negative leaders, affecting sprite morphology. A summary of negative leader extents, altitudes, and speeds before and after the + CG stroke is provided, as well as positive leader origins and inferred speeds. Negative leader speeds exhibited modes at 10 5 and 5 × 10 5 m s À1. Five examples with different evolutions are discussed: (1) Slow bidirectional development with negative leader termination before the + CG stroke; (2) Fast bidirectional development with the negative leader continuing after the + CG stroke. (3) Slow-fast bidirectional development with a negative leader exhibiting a sudden lowering and speed increase; (4) Fast secondary bidirectional development from an in-cloud horizontal positive leader. Negative leaders propagated rapidly into the upper positive charge layer, continuing after the + CG stroke; (5) Slow bidirectional development with a long negative leader (50 km) subject to cutoff while the original positive leader remained trapped inside negative charge. A + CG stroke subsequently occurred under the old negative leader channel. Carrot sprites tended to be associated with fast extending leaders after the stroke, columniform/mixed sprites with slower side branches.

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On 29–30 October 2013, a low‐light video camera installed at Pic du Midi (2877 m), recorded transient luminous events above a very active storm over the Mediterranean Sea. The minimum cloud top temperature reached −73°C, while its cloud to ground (CG) flash rate exceeded 30 fl min−1. Some sprite events have long duration and resemble to dancing sprites. We analyze in detail the temporal evolution and estimated location of two series of sprite sequences, as well as the cloud structure, the lightning activity, the electric field radiated in a broad range of low frequencies, and the current moment waveform of the lightning strokes. (i) In each series, successive sprite sequences reflect time and location of corresponding positive lightning strokes across the stratiform region. (ii) The longer time‐delayed (>20 ms) sprite elements correspond to the lower impulsive charge moment changes (iCMC) of the parent strokes (<200 C km), and they are shifted few tens of kilometers from their SP + CG stroke. However, both short and long time‐delayed sprite elements also occur after strokes that produce a large iCMC and that are followed by a continuing current. (iii) The long time‐delayed sprite elements during the continuing current correspond to surges in the current moment waveform. They occur sometimes at an altitude apparently lower than the previous short time‐delayed sprite elements, possibly because of changes in the local conductivity. (iv) The largest and brightest sprite elements produce significant current signatures, visible when their delay is not too short (~3–5 ms).

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Abstract. Lightning is the major cause of the natural ignition of wildfires worldwide and produces the largest wildfires in some regions. Lightning strokes produce about 5 % of forest fires in the Mediterranean Basin and are one of the most important precursors of the largest forest fires during the summer. Lightning-ignited wildfires produce significant emissions of aerosols, black carbon, and trace gases, such as CO, SO2, CH4, and O3, affecting air quality. Characterization of the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires in the Mediterranean Basin can serve to improve fire forecasting models and to upgrade the implementation of fire emissions in atmospheric models. This study investigates the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires (LIWs) and long continuing current (LCC) lightning flashes in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. LCC lightning and lightning in dry thunderstorms with a low precipitation rate have been proposed to be the main precursors of the largest wildfires. We use lightning data provided by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN), and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the International Space Station (ISS), together with four databases of wildfires produced in Spain, Portugal, southern France, and Greece, respectively, in order to produce a climatology of LIWs and LCC lightning over the Mediterranean Basin. In addition, we use meteorological data provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis data set and by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), together with the Cloud Top Height product (CTHP) derived from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites measurements to investigate the meteorological conditions of LIWs and LCC lightning. According to our results, LIWs and a significant amount of LCC lightning flashes tend to occur in dry thunderstorms with weak updrafts. Our results suggest that LIWs tend to occur in clouds with a high base and with a vertical content of moisture lower than the climatological value, as well as with a higher temperature and a lower precipitation rate. Meteorological conditions of LIWs from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece are in agreement, although some differences possibly caused by the highly variable topography in Greece and a more humid environment are observed. These results show the possibility of using the typical meteorological and cloud conditions of LCC lightning flashes as proxy to parameterize the ignition of wildfires in atmospheric or forecasting models.

Abstract.Monitoring thunderstorms activity is an essential part of operational weather surveillance given their potential hazards, including lightning, hail, heavy rainfall, strong winds or even tornadoes. This study has two main objectives: firstly, the description of a methodology, based on radar and total lightning data to characterise thunderstorms in real-time; secondly, the application of this methodology to 66 thunderstorms that affected Catalonia (NE Spain) in the summer of 2006. An object-oriented tracking procedure is employed, where different observation data types generate four different types of objects (radar 1-km CAPPI reflectivity composites, radar reflectivity volumetric data, cloud-toground lightning data and intra-cloud lightning data). In the framework proposed, these objects are the building blocks of a higher level object, the thunderstorm.The methodology is demonstrated with a dataset of thunderstorms whose main characteristics, along the complete life cycle of the convective structures (development, maturity and dissipation), are described statistically. The development and dissipation stages present similar durations in most cases examined. On the contrary, the duration of the maturity phase is much more variable and related to the thunderstorm intensity, defined here in terms of lightning flash rate. Most of the activity of IC and CG flashes is registered in the maturity stage. In the development stage little CG flashes are observed (2% to 5%), while for the dissipation phase is possible to observe a few more CG flashes (10% to 15%). Additionally, a selection of thunderstorms is used to examine general life cycle patterns, obtained from the analysis of normalized (with respect to thunderstorm total duration and maximum value Correspondence to: T. Rigo (tomeur@meteo.cat) of variables considered) thunderstorm parameters. Among other findings, the study indicates that the normalized duration of the three stages of thunderstorm life cycle is similar in most thunderstorms, with the longest duration corresponding to the maturity stage (approximately 80% of the total time).