Case study on sprite and lightning activities associated with the cell life cycle in a mesoscale convective system

Abstract

Abstract A line of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) accompanied by hails with strong updraft may produces favorable weather conditions for high flash rates and sprite occurrences. On 18–20 May, 2018, we observed a total of 287 transient luminous events (TLEs) in the Taiwan campaign. After analyzing flashes from Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN), the observation region has a maximum CG flash rate 115.1 min-1 (95.1 min-1 for –CGs and 20.0 min-1 for + CG) within a single cell of MCSs on May 20 within a radius 55 km. We investigated the TLEs activity associated with the multi-cells in the MCS, and found that sudden increases of TLEs are associated with the merging stage of new and old cells and the dissipating stage of cell. The flashes associated with TLEs with halo emissions have a tendency of large peak current. The TLEs with their parent flashes and extremely high peak currents (200, 244, 261, 267, 311, 357 kA) were shown, and most of events have common optical features of sprite halos and clusters of sprites structures.