Intracloud Lightning Echo Simulation for the Airborne Weather Radar Based on Dielectric Breakdown Model

Lightning is a long-distance discharge phenomenon that not only serves as a crucial atmospheric physical process but also frequently accompanies severe convective weather disasters such as short-duration heavy rainfall, hail, and thunderstorm winds. These pose a significant threat to the flight safety of civil aviation aircraft. Airborne weather radar, as equipment essential for ensuring the safety of aircraft operations, has significant advantages in detecting hazardous weather conditions. Lightning detection and warning based on airborne weather radar have become important research topics in the field of civil aviation, with lightning echo data serving as the foundation for developing detection algorithms. However, it is difficult to obtain the lightning echo data of airborne weather radar because of the instantaneous occurrence and complex change of lightning. To address this issue, this paper proposes a simulation method for airborne weather radar intracloud lightning echoes. The method first simulates the propagation path of the lightning channel using the dielectric breakdown model, then analyzes the backscattering cross-section of the lightning channel based on its plasma characteristics, and finally applies the weather radar equation to obtain the airborne weather radar lightning echoes.