Detection, Mechanism, and Forecasting of Lightning and Thunderstorms

Thunderstorms are severe convective weather systems generating lightning, which can lead to various catastrophic weather when a large amount of lightning is produced. In the past decade, high spatiotemporal resolution lightning detection technology has been developed, which has laid a solid foundation for investigating the propagation and development mechanism of lightning as well as associated physical effects. Based on the Doppler dual polarization weather radar and high-resolution numerical models, thunderstorm dynamics, microphysics, electrical processes, and their interactions have been well investigated, and some new insights into the thunderstorm charge distribution and its relation to the thunderstorm structure have been obtained. All these have promoted the lightning forecasting and lightning data assimilation. This paper reviews the recent research progress in detection, mechanism, and forecasting of thunderstorms and lightning in China in the last decade from four aspects: 1) high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) lightning mapping technology and application, 2) lightning in different thunderstorms and its relationship with cloud dynamics and microphysics, 3) observation and simulation of lightning charge structure in thunderstorms, and 4) lightning prediction and lightning data assimilation for thunderstorm forecasting. Major challenges and the cutting-edge research directions in lightning and thunderstorms studies are also highlighted.