Charge Structure and Lightning Discharge in a Thunderstorm Over the Central Tibetan Plateau

Abstract The evolution of charge structure involved in lightning discharge of a thunderstorm over the central Tibetan Plateau is investigated for the first time, based on the data from very high frequency interferometer, radar and sounding. During the developing‐mature stage, the TP thunderstorm exhibited a tripolar charge structure evolved from an initial inverted dipole. At the mature stage, a bottom‐heavy tripole charge structure is clearly presented, with a strong lower positive charge center (LPCC) at temperatures above −10°C, a middle negative charge region between −30°C and −15°C, and an upper positive charge region at T < −30°C. As the LPCC was depleted, the charge structure evolved into a normal tripole with a pocket LPCC. The merging between different convective cells resulted in the formation of two adjacent negative charge regions located directly and obliquely above the LPCC, and horizontally arranged different charge regions were simultaneously involved in the same lightning discharge.