Investigation of Electrification Mechanisms and Relationship between the Electrical Discharge Frequency and Radar Characteristics of the Thunderstorm in China

The development of a thunderstorm cell in the Beijing area according to the results of numerical modeling and field observations is considered. Based on the numerical simulation, it is shown that the most intense electrification process is the separation of charges as a result of collisions of hailstones and cloud crystals. Using the field observations, the relationship between the electrical and radar characteristics of the cloud was investigated. It is demonstrated that the highest positive correlation is observed between the frequency of discharges and the volume of the supercooled part of the cloud above the 0°C isotherm, and the highest negative correlation is revealed between the frequency of discharges and the maximum current in a discharge.