The investigation on electrical characteristics of thunderstorms in the Chinese inland plateau

The electrical characteristics of thunderstorms in different altitude regions of the Chinese inland plateau have been analyzed in this paper. The results show that the thunderstorms can be divided into two categories in the study regions, one showing the normal tripole electrical charge structure (Normal-type), another one showing the special tripole charge structure with a larger-than-usual lower positive charge center (LPCC) at the base of thunderstorm (Special-type). We find that the two types of thunderstorms have different occurrences in different regions, and the percentage of Special-type thunderstorm increases with the altitude. On the whole, the flash rate of Special-type is slightly larger than that of the normal-type thunderstorm. The relations of combined meteorological parameters to the electrical characteristics of thunderstorms in the study regions are discussed in detail. We find that the temperature difference of surface and air at two meters above surface (Ts-T2m) and warm cloud depth (WCD) have obvious indication on the intensity of LPCC.