Unusual features of negative leaders' development in natural lightning, according to simultaneous records of current, electric field, luminosity, and high‐speed video

Abstract

Abstract The development of downward and upward leaders that formed two negative cloud‐to‐ground return strokes in natural lightning, spaced only about 200 µs apart and terminating on ground only a few hundred meters away, was monitored at Morro do Cachimbo Station, Brazil. The simultaneous records of current, close electric field, relative luminosity, and corresponding high‐speed video frames (sampling rate of 20,000 frames per second) reveal that the initiation of the first return stroke interfered in the development of the second negative leader, leading it to an apparent continuous development before the attachment, without stepping, and at a regular two‐dimensional speed. Based on the experimental data, the formation processes of the two return strokes are discussed, and plausible interpretations for their development are provided.