On the characteristics of positive lightning ground flashes in Sweden

Abstract

In this study the stroke characteristics of positive cloud-to-ground flashes in Sweden were obtained from the electric field records measured from 14 thunderstorms. The electric fields were measured with nanosecond resolution. Together with the fast and the slow electric field records, the narrowband radiation field at 3 and 30. MHz signals were also measured simultaneously. Out of a total of 107 flashes, 30 flashes had two strokes, 7 had three strokes and 3 flashes had four strokes. The arithmetic and geometric means of the interstroke intervals were found to be 116 and 70 ms, respectively. The arithmetic and geometric mean ratio between the peak electric field of the Subsequent Return Stroke (SRS) and the first Return Stroke (RS) were 0.48 and 0.36, respectively. Of the 40 positive multiple-stroke ground flashes, 5% have at least one SRS with field peak higher than the first RS. The percentage of SRS with field peaks greater than the first RS was 6%. In our best of our knowledge, this is the first time a large sample of positive return strokes in Sweden was analysed. It was found to be statistically more significant than the previous studies.