Return-Stroke Multiplicity of Negative Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Flashes

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Abstract
The percentage of negative lightning flashes composed of a single stroke is examined. This percentage is estimated from data reported by the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) for Florida and New Mexico and is compared with that determined from electric field and optical observations in these two states. The latter observations allowed a very accurate stroke count and, therefore, were used as the ground truth in the comparison. The percentage of negative single-stroke flashes reported by the NLDN is a factor of 2–3 higher than from the accurate-stroke-count studies in Florida (44% vs 17%) and is a factor of 3–4 higher in New Mexico (51% vs 14%). The observed discrepancies suggest that many small subsequent strokes are missed by the NLDN because these strokes fail to exceed the system's trigger threshold level so that only one stroke per flash is recorded in many multiple-stroke flashes. The percentage of negative single-stroke flashes reported by the Austrian lightning detection net... Abstract The percentage of negative lightning flashes composed of a single stroke is examined. This percentage is estimated from data reported by the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) for Florida and New Mexico and is compared with that determined from electric field and optical observations in these two states. The latter observations allowed a very accurate stroke count and, therefore, were used as the ground truth in the comparison. The percentage of negative single-stroke flashes reported by the NLDN is a factor of 2–3 higher than from the accurate-stroke-count studies in Florida (44% vs 17%) and is a factor of 3–4 higher in New Mexico (51% vs 14%). The observed discrepancies suggest that many small subsequent strokes are missed by the NLDN because these strokes fail to exceed the system's trigger threshold level so that only one stroke per flash is recorded in many multiple-stroke flashes. The percentage of negative single-stroke flashes reported by the Austrian lightning detection net...

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