Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386

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Atmospheric Research
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a t m o s

Characteristics of negative lightning ashes presenting multiple-ground

terminations on a millisecond-scale
X.Z. Kong a,, X.S. Qie b, Y. Zhao a, T. Zhang a
a
Laboratory for Climate Environment and Disasters of Western China, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
b
Laboratory for Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation (LAGEO), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: By using a high-speed video camera system (1000 frames s 1) in correlation with fast and slow
Received 31 December 2007 antenna systems, the negative cloud-to-ground (CG) ashes that struck the ground with more
Accepted 7 March 2008 than one termination have been analyzed. This kind of stroke, named as multiple-ground
terminations stroke (MGTS), was produced by different branches of the same stepped leader
Keywords: during quite a short time. Based on optical images, the 2D progression speed of leader branches
Cloud-to-ground lightning ash
was estimated to be in the range (0.92.0) 105 m s 1. The distance between adjacent striking
Multiple-ground terminations
Return stroke
points of MGTS was from 0.2 km to 1.9 km. The percentage of ashes with multiple-ground
High-speed video camera terminations occupied about 15% (9 out of 59) of the total negative CG ashes, with a range of
11%20% in different areas in China. The time intervals between the two adjacent peaks ranged
from 4 s to 486 s based on the E-eld change caused by the MGTS. The ashes which had
multiple striking points on the ground during quite a short time may be a common
phenomenon in the lightning discharge process. It might produce more serious damage to
facilities on the ground and should not be neglected in the design of lightning protection.
2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction intuitively recognised, and the discharge channels associated

The stepped leader of rst stroke of negative CG ashes
usually progresses to ground with visible branches according
to the lightning photography, lightning mapping results by
VHF/UHF interferometric technique (Shao et al., 1995) and
time of arrival technique (Krehbiel et al., 2000). If a branch
touches the ground before a return-stroke wave produced by
main leader branch, reaching the branch point and dischar-
ging it, an additional stroke will be initiated from the
ground (Wang et al., 2000). Based only on the electric eld
change records, it is not possible to ensure that such a stroke
occurred because we can have two return-stroke peaks very
close in time due to cut-off and re-establishment of current in
a same channel (Rakov and Uman, 1994; Rakov et al., 2003).
From the pictures of lightning progression captured by video
camera, however, this kind of discharge phenomenon can be
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 931 4967685.
E-mail address: kongxz@lzb.ac.cn (X.Z. Kong).
with individual strokes can be identied and located easily.
Very recently, such kinds of lightning ashes with more than
one contact on the ground produced during quite a short time
have been studied by using the images from high-speed
optical instruments (Ballarotti et al., 2005; Saba et al., 2006;
Qie and Kong, 2007).
Schonland (1938) observed, by using a streak camera, that
two leader branches apparently originated from a single
trunk hidden inside the cloud and produced two return
strokes separated in time by 73 ms. Winn et al. (1973) used a
conventional speed video camera (60 elds s 1) to study the
characteristics of ashes with multiple channels to ground.
Guo and Krider (1982) found that two different branches of
the same stepped leader of ashes in Florida could initiate
separate return strokes; they used a 1 cm2 silicon photodiode
(1 s time resolution) which viewed an all-sky mirror system.
Wang et al. (2000) reported a branched stroke which had two
nearly identical channels spatially separated by about 200 m,
and two return strokes originated independently from the
ground along two leader branch channels with a time

0169-8095/$ see front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.03.025
382 X.Z. Kong et al. / Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386
Fig. 1. Histogram of termination number of rst stroke of negative CG ashes.
difference of only 200 ns. William and Krider (2002) found
that about 7.8% (30 out of 386) CG ashes struck the ground in
two or more places in the same frame that were separated by
tens of meters or more using the video records with time
resolution of 33 ms. Using a high-speed camera, Ballarotti
et al. (2005) found 6 strokes out of 455 ashes presenting two
ground terminations that were simultaneously connected to
the ground. Saba et al. (2006) captured a ash with two
different branches terminating on the ground with a time
interval about 2 ms, and deemed that they were different
return strokes.
In this paper, we present observation results of strokes of
negative CG ashes which had more than one strike point
during quite a short time by using a high-speed video camera
and simultaneous electric eld measurement. This kind of
stroke is named hereafter as a multiple-ground termina-
tions stroke (MGTS), which is different from the ashes with
different grounding contacts for different stroke orders as
analyzed by Rakov et al. (1994). In this paper, the observed
MGTS shares the same trunk below the cloud base or hiding
inside the cloud at the initial stage, as illustrated in the paper.
When several different branches branched from the main
leader channel touched the ground during a very short time
(b500 s), a MGTS or forked-stroke is formed.
2. Instrumentation and measurements
During the summers of 2002, 2006 and 2007, observations
on lightning discharge processes were made respectively in
Guangdong, in southeastern China, Qinghai, in northwestern
China, and Shandong, in eastern China. The surroundings of
observation stations in Guangdong and Shandong are quite
at and the average height is about 10 m above sea level. Only
some trees or other low herbages exist around the station,
while there are hills, trees and other plants around the station
of Qinghai and the average height is about 2.4 km above sea
level.
The FASTCAM-Super 10 K high-speed video camera system
(Model PS-220) with 1 ms time resolution was used to record
time-resolved images of lightning progression. The exposure
time of one frame was about 1 ms. A deep red lter was placed
in front of the video lens to enhance the lightning images in
daytime (not used in nighttime). During the observation, in
order to identify the type of lightning, E-eld changes caused
by the lightning discharge were measured by using a slow
antenna with a time constant of 6 s and a fast antenna with a
time constant of 2 ms, respectively. A digital oscilloscope with
eight channels was employed to record the E-eld changes in
Guangdong at a sampling rate of 1 MHz, while outputs of the
antennae in Qinghai and Shandong were digitized by a 16-bit
A/D converter and recorded by a computer at a sampling rate
of 4 MHz.
3. Results
3.1. Optical statistics of the MGTS of CG lightning ashes
During the observation periods of 2002, 2006 and 2007, a
total of 59 negative CG ashes were captured by the high-
speed video camera with corresponding electric eld record-
ings. When one or two consecutive frames of a stroke show
all the grounded branches illuminated, and the corresponding
E-eld change of the stroke show multiple peaks, then it is
afrmed to be a multiple-ground-termination stroke (MGTS).
Nine ashes with MGTS were observed, and all of them
happened in the rst stroke. Fig. 1 shows a histogram of the
terminations number of the rst stroke of CG ashes based on
two measurement records. Nine out of 59 CG (15.3%) ashes
had more than one ground termination in the same stroke.
Two had four terminations and the others had two. The
percentages are 3.4% (2 out of 59) and 11.7% (7 out of 59),
respectively.
Table 1 gives the statistics of the lightning ashes captured by
the video camera system. Conrmed by the optical and E-eld
changes, the estimated percentage of ashes with MGTS in
all the camera-captured CG ashes was 11% in Guangdong, and
1117% in Shandong and 20% in Qinghai. All of the ashes with
MGTS in Guangdong and Shandong had 25 return strokes,
while that in Qinghai had only one. A maximum of four contact
points on the ground were formed in the rst stroke by two
ashes in Qinghai; the other two regions had two contacts. The
percentage here is much higher than the 1.3% (6 out of 455)
found by Ballarotti et al. (2005) and the 3.8% (30 out of 386) by
William and Krider (2002).
3.2. The optical characteristics of stepped leader of MGTS
Fig. 2 shows images of the propagation of the stepped
leader, return stroke and/or continuing current from 22 ms
to 3 ms of a MGTS which had four terminations on the ground
in Qinghai. The time of the return stroke is set to be 0 ms. The
maximum luminescence height observed was about 1.8 km
above the ground. The stepped leader developed with one
main trunk at the beginning. After branching, it propagated
down to the ground in multiple branches with a slower speed.
Table 1
The CG ashes captured by the high-speed video camera
Area Year CGs CG with Percentage of Max. number of
MGTS CG with MGTS terminations on
the ground
Guangdong 2002 17 2 11.8 2
Qinghai 2002 10 2 20 4
Shandong 2006 23 4 17.4 2
Shandong 2007 9 1 11.1 2
 X.Z. Kong et al. / Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386 383

Fig. 2. Part of the images of stepped leader and return stroke and/or continuing current for a MGTS in Qinghai region.

The 2D average progress velocity for four grounding channel
branches was about 1.3 105 m s 1,1.0 105 m s 1,1.1 105 m s 1,
and 1.0 105 m s 1 from right to left. The progress feature of the
stepped leader of this ash is described in detail by Qie and
Kong (2007). The four branches of the stepped leader did
contact the ground, and were identied from the waveforms of
E-eld change, which will be discussed later in Fig. 4A. The
terminations were signed by in the gures.
Fig. 3 shows the optical images of MGTS samples of three
other CG ash cases which had two ground terminations in
the Guangdong and Shandong areas. The second strokes of
Flash 020701and 020611 occurred at 99 ms and 38 ms,
respectively. The luminescence time of two grounding
channels in Fig. 3C lasted about 4 ms, but less than 2 ms for
other two MGTS. For the ashes which branched outside the
cloud base, the two branches had the same saturation region
near the cloud base (especially at 1 ms and 99 ms in Fig. 3A)
or in the cloud (0 and 1 ms in Fig. 3B, top-left of images). In
addition, part of the channel re-illuminated in the second
stroke process for the ashes 020701 and 020611 (as shown at
99 ms in Fig. 3A and 38 ms in 3b), but only one of them
touched the ground. (The top of the ash in Fig. 3C was
outside the view scope, and the image of the second stroke
was saturated, so we could not make a conclusion about it.) If
different channels did not share the same trunk inside the
cloud, the possibility was very low that the channels
illuminated at the same time during two consecutive strokes.
This indicates that different branches should share a common
trunk hiding inside the cloud. That is to say, the MGTS was
produced by the multiple branches of the same leader, in

Fig. 3. The optical images around the return-stroke time for three MGTS cases. A, Flash 020701, and B, Flash 020611 in Guangdong; C, in Shandong. The second
strokes of Flashes 020701 and 020611 occurred at 99 ms and 38 ms, respectively.
384 X.Z. Kong et al. / Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386

Table 2 As shown in Table 2, the distances between adjacent

Statistics of observed ashes with MGTS channel terminations ranged from 0.2 to 2.3 km. As for the
Flash Area Time of Maximum Overall Adjacent
ash in Fig. 2, they were about 0.45 km, 0.23 km and 0.20 km
leader height leader speed channel from right to left. The distance of Flash 020701 shown in Fig. 3A
observation observed (105 m s 1) termination was about 0.8 km and about 1.9 km for Flash 020611 in Fig. 3B.
(ms) (km) distance Thottappillil et al. (1992) found that the distance between
range (km)
separate channel terminations was from 0.3 km to 7.3 km with a
020701 Guangdong 5 0.95 1.0 2.0 0.8
geometric mean of 1.7 km. The maximum distance between the
020611 Guangdong 4 1.0 1.2 2.0 1.9
190230 Qinghai 28 1.86 1.0 1.3 0.2 0.45 different terminations associated with the same stroke was
190845 Qinghai 24 1.85 0.7 1.0 0.2 0.45 smaller than that created by different strokes within a ash (see
their Fig. 2). This may mean that the smaller values would be
expected from MGTS because it is related to different branches
conrmation of the hypothesis of Guo and Krider (1982). They of the same stepped leader. William and Krider (2002) found
postulated that their eld and optical observation with that two or more places formed by the ashes were separated
double peaks on the eld and optical changes were due to by tens of meters or more.
two return strokes initiated by two branches of the same
stepped leader. Rakov and Uman (1994), however, thought 3.3. The characteristics of electric eld waveform of MGTS
that the two return strokes were initiated by their own leader
process, which occurred in the same channel. Fig. 4 shows the E-eld change waveform of MGTS
Table 2 presents the maximum height observed, time of corresponding to the ash in Figs. 2 and 3B. The signatures
leader observation, overall speed of leader branches and the in the stroke waveforms contained four or two large, fast
adjacent channel terminations distance range (the maximum rising pulses (Labeled as Ra, Rb, Rc and Rd in Fig. 4A, and Ra
error within 15 m) of MGTS in Guangdong and Qinghai based and Rb in Fig. 4B, respectively) during a very short time
on images of the high-speed video camera. The observed (b500 s). Each one was similar to a normal return stroke, but
luminescence time of the leader was about 45 ms in they were separated by a few tens to hundreds of micro-
Guangdong, while that of Qinghai about 2428 ms. The average seconds. It conrmed that the four branches in Fig. 2 and two
2D overall progress speed of the two leader branches from branches in Fig. 3B did terminate on the ground eventually
cloud to ground in Guangdong was about (1.02.0) 105 m s 1, and formed the MGTS. The time difference between two
and (0.71.3) 105 m s 1 in Qinghai. The speeds were smaller adjacent peaks was 4 s, 9 s and 10 s in Fig. 4A, while the
than the values reported by Orville and Idone (1982). They ash in Fig. 4B was about 486 s.
found that the average speeds of two-dimensional steps over Table 3 presents statistics of CG ashes which present the
the last few steps were 15 105 m s 1, 5.9 105 m s 1 and multiple peaks as shown in Fig. 4 in Guangdong and Qinghai
11 105 m s 1. Wang et al. (1999) found an average speed of based on the E-eld change recordings. A total of 371 CG ashes
about 25 105 m s 1 from 200 to 40 m. The speed in our case is in Guangdong and 119 CG ashes in Qinghai were analyzed. The
obviously lower than theirs, possibly indicating that more time intervals between the adjacent peaks of E-eld changes
energy needs to be accumulated to stimulate four vigorous ranged from 20 s to 486 s and from 4 s to 172 s in
leader branches simultaneously (Qie and Kong, 2007). Another Guangdong and Qinghai, respectively. The percentage of ashes
reason could be that the above mentioned speeds referred to a with multiple peaks accounted for about 16.7% (62 out of 371)
shorter distance near the ground, but a larger distance in our and 17.6% (21 out of 119), respectively, with average values of
cases. about 16.9%. It is a little higher than the average value (15.3%)

Fig. 4. Examples of E-eld changes of MGTS. A, corresponding to the ash in Fig. 2; B, Flash 020611 in Fig. 3B.
 X.Z. Kong et al. / Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386 385

based on the optical images. This may show that some multiple
peaks clould be caused by the two strokes which happened in
the same channel during quite a short time as decribed by of
Rakov and Uman (1994) and Rakov et al. (2003). But to some
extent, this particular signature of stroke with multiple peaks is
a possible evidence of a MGTS or forked-stroke event.

3.4. Estimation of the return-stroke velocity involved in a four

MGTS case

Fig. 5 shows a sketch map of a four terminations stroke as

shown in Fig. 2. The three branching points, labeled as P1, P2
and P3 from top to bottom in Fig. 5, are 1.3 km, 0.5 km and
0.3 km above the ground, respectively. By particular compar-
ison among the four branch channels, the branch Ba marked in
Fig. 5 is deemed as the rst one which reached ground and
produced peak Ra shown in Fig. 4A. Other branches were
marked as Bb, Bc and Bd in sequence according to the images
and peak time intervals of E-eld changes (as marked in Fig. 5),
and correspond to peaks Rb, Rc and Rd in Fig. 4A. Here, the Bd
was sorted as the right branch, and Ba, Bb and Bc as the left
branches. The branch Ba is considered as the main discharge
channel for its luminous time is the longest among the four
branches based on the images shown in Fig. 2.
Wang et al. (2000) found that the return-stroke waves
along different channels exhibited surprisingly similar speed
proles using the ALPS system. They suggested that a
similarity holds for strokes developed in the same electric
eld environment. To ensure that the four branches did
contact the ground, the time for the upward wave of return
strokes to reach the given height h on a channel was
estimated by assuming two different stroke speeds. Two
testing stroke speeds, 4 107 m s 1 and 1 108 m s 1, are
chosen based on a minimum speed of the return stroke of
about 2 107 m s 1 (Idone and Orville, 1982) and a higher
speed of (1.32.7) 108 m s 1 (Wang et al., 1999) from the
literature.
We assume that branches terminate on the ground at the
same level, so the time for upward return-stroke waves along
different branches to reach the given height is equal. The
required times for vertical velocities of v1 = 4 107 m s 1 and
v2 = 1 108 m s 1 to reach the branch points are shown on the
right of Fig. 5. When the return-stroke speed is assumed to be
4 107 m s 1, the times for upward stroke waves along
different branches to reach the branching point P3, P2 and P1
in the visible portion of the channel (shown in Fig. 5) are
about 7.5 s, 13.5 s and 33 s, respectively. From the
waveform of E-eld change in Fig. 4A, the time interval
between the rst and last peaks (Ra and Rd) is about 23 s. So
the time is long enough for the right branch Bd to reach the
ground before the upward wave of Ra moved to the point P1
along Ba. The times for the upward wave of Ra to reach the
Table 3
Statistics of ashes with multiple peaks in Guangdong and Qinghai based on
the E-eld change recordings
Area Sample Flashes T (s) Percentage of
with MGTS ash with MGTS (%)
Guangdong 371 62 20486 16.7
Qinghai 119 21 4172 17.6
Fig. 5. A sketch map of the four terminations stroke. t1 is the required time
for v1 = 4 107 m s 1, and t2 is for v2 = 1 108 m s 1.
branching point P3 and P2 along Ba are about 7.5 s and
13.5 s, respectively. Compared with the time interval among
the rst three peaks of 4 s (Ra and Rb) and 13 s (Ra and Rc)
in Fig. 4A, it could be concluded that the time is also enough
for the branches Bb and Bc to reach the ground before Ra
reached the point P3 and P2, respectively.
However, if the average vertical speed of the return strokes
along different branches is assumed to be about 1 108 m s 1,
the times for the upward moving return-stroke wave of Ra
along Ba to reach the branching point P1, P2 and P3 will be
about 13 s, 5 s and 3 s, and they are much smaller than the
intervals of E-eld changes. When the upward wave of Ra
reached the three points P3, P2 and P1 in sequence, it would
discharge the charges there and also the charges in the upper
channel. Then the branch Bb, Bc and Bd could not terminate
on the ground because not enough supporting charges were
left along the channel. Hence the velocity of 1 108 m s 1
should not be possible.
From the analysis above, it could be concluded that the
vertical velocity of the four MGTS should be of the order of
107 m s 1, in agreement with the hypothesis of slow return-
stroke speed (107 m s 1) by Rakov and Uman (1994). It is
smaller than the speed inferred from the articially triggered
lightning ashes (Wang et al., 1999).
4. Discussion and conclusion
By using images of the high-speed video camera and the E-
eld changes caused by the ashes on the ground in 2002,
2006 and 2007, the negative CG ashes with MGTS during
quite a short time were analyzed. The MGTS produced by
different branches of the same leader within a millisecond or
less appeared to be feasible. Especially, MGTS with four
terminations (conrmed by optical and electrical recordings)
were observed. It provides evidence of forked-stroke or
MGTS that has more than two ground contact points. The
386 X.Z. Kong et al. / Atmospheric Research 91 (2009) 381386
percentage of CG ashes with MGTS was about 1120%, with
average value about 15.3%, based on the images captured by
high-speed video camera, which is much higher than 1.3%
reported by Ballarotti et al. (2005) and the 3.8% by William
and Krider (2002). It seems to be frequent in our research
regions that stepped leader branches produced MGTS. It may
be inuenced by the analyzed samples. The time interval
between the two adjacent peaks ranged from 4 s to 486 s
based on the E-eld changes and the optical images of the
MGTSs.
According to the progression of the stepped leader of
MGTS from the high-speed video camera, the 2D leader speed
of MGTS was estimated to be about (0.92.0) 105 m s 1. The
speed of different branches of a stepped leader was nearly
uniform, although different downward leader branches
competed with each other for an earlier attachment to the
ground. The uniform progression should be one of the
necessary conditions. The condition around the observation
station also played important roles in the formation of MGTS.
The topography and the plants should be conducive to the
formation of the MGTS. All the captured MGTS occurred in the
rst stroke, although part of the channel was re-illuminated
in the second stroke process as shown in Fig. 3A and B. The
work of Ballarotti et al. (2005) showed that about 67% (4 out
of 6) happened in the rst stroke. The lower possibility of
multiple terminations in the subsequent stroke process may
suggest that the potential between the cloud and ground and
the charge density of the thunderstorm should also inuence
it. Based on the analysis of a four terminations stroke case, the
vertical speed of the upward return-stroke wave should be of
the order of 107 m s 1 to assure that multiple branches touch
the ground.
The lightning ashes, which have forked-stroke or
MGTS, were about 15.3% of the negative CG ashes. This
shows that it is not an uncommon phenomenon, which may
have important implications for lightning protection and
lightning test standards. Obviously, this kind of lightning ash
needs further study. Higher time-resolution optical observa-
tion together with the electric eld change signatures should
be used in future to unveil the attachment processes of this
kind of downward leader branching to ground and the
propagation of return strokes.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 40605003), the Knowledge
Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(Grant No. KZCX2-YW-206), and the National Science Fund for
Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 40325013). The
authors would like to thank C. Guo and X. Liu for their
valuable suggestions which improved the quality of the paper.
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