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Abstract

When convection develops into a thundercloud stage of at least moderate intensity, its cellular appearance may be monitored not only with weather radars but also with lightning location systems. For intense thunderstorms, the ground-flash rate alone is sufficient for making apparent the underlying convection-cell structure. if flash cells can be properly identified, they show longitudinal development complementary to the usual view of advancing transverse front. A method is described to analyse the flash-cell structure of thunderstorms and is illustrated with an example from Finland. With proper choice of parameters, the largest, most interesting flash cells generally have realistic sizes, lifetimes and motion.

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Tuomi, T.J., Mäkelä, A. (2009). Flash Cells in Thunderstorms. In: Betz, H.D., Schumann, U., Laroche, P. (eds) Lightning: Principles, Instruments and Applications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9079-0_23

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