Lightning activity and its associations with cloud structures in a rainstorm dominated by warm precipitation

It is the data associated with the figures in the paper titiled " Lightning activity and its associations with cloud structures in a rainstorm dominated by warm precipitation " which is being in the process of submission. The following is the abstract of this paper. Lightning activity and its associations with cloud structures during a rainstorm dominated by warm cloud precipitation were studied in Guangdong, China on May 7, 2017, using three-dimensional lightning location and polarimetric radar data. The overall convection and lightning activities of the rainstorm were weak. The rainstorm generally showed a typical tripolar charge structure with the main negative charge core located between the −15 and −8 °C environmental isotherms in the first 4 h. The height of the charge regions clearly decreased after this period, with the main negative charge core being below the –8 °C isotherm. Lightning discharges were more concentrated in areas featuring relatively weak convection and relatively low precipitation intensity. Most of the locations with lightning discharges were dominated by dry aggregated snow and weak updrafts and downdrafts. This investigation demonstrated that the lightning discharges were spatially separated from the area of origin of charging in this rainstorm. It is proposed that, with weak convection in the rainstorm, the charging rate was lower than the speed of charge transfer from the area of origin, causing a relatively low charge density and a low frequency of lightning in the area of origin of charging. Meanwhile, the aggregation of small charged particles in regions away from the area of origin of charging might be conducive to the formation of a relatively high charge density and therefore relatively frequent lightning flashes. This situation is different from a typical thunderstorm with strong convection.本数据集对应目前处于投稿阶段的论文《暖降水主导暴雨中的闪电活动及其与云结构的关联》（原英文标题："Lightning activity and its associations with cloud structures in a rainstorm dominated by warm precipitation"）中的配图关联数据。以下为该论文的摘要内容：本研究于2017年5月7日针对中国广东地区一场暖降水主导的暴雨，采用三维闪电定位（three-dimensional lightning location）数据与偏振雷达（polarimetric radar）观测资料，分析了该暴雨过程中的闪电活动特征及其与云结构的关联。本次暴雨的整体对流活动与闪电活动均较弱。在暴雨发生的前4小时，其电荷结构整体呈现典型的三极性分布，主负电荷核心位于环境温度-15℃至-8℃的等温层之间；该时段过后，电荷区高度明显降低，主负电荷核心下移至-8℃等温层以下。闪电放电事件更多集中于对流相对较弱、降水强度相对偏低的区域。绝大多数发生闪电放电的区域，其云内环境以干聚合雪粒子以及弱上升、下沉气流为主。本研究表明，本次暴雨中的闪电放电过程与电荷产生源区在空间分布上存在分离现象。研究提出，由于本次暴雨的对流活动较弱，电荷产生速率低于电荷从源区的迁移速度，导致电荷产生源区内电荷密度相对偏低，闪电发生频率较低；与此同时，远离电荷产生源区的区域中带电小粒子的聚集过程，更易形成较高的电荷密度，进而催生更为频繁的闪电闪击事件。这一特征与典型强对流雷暴存在显著差异。