Characteristics of Regions with High-Density Initiation of Flashes in Mesoscale Convective Systems

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript Characteristics of regions with high-density initiation of flashes in mesoscale convective systems deals with analysis of flashes and is focused on finding characteristics of places where flashes initiate. The study is based on analysis both flash and radar data.

I have several major comments on the text, the research conducted and the interpretation of the results obtained.

1. In my opinion the text needs a language check.
2. It would be useful to briefly describe how the convective and stratiform regions differ and are determined in your data. The reference is not sufficient here.
3. The description of non-inductive electrification is not accurately described in my opinion (L71-76) and the description is repeated several times in the paper. In addition, can you indicate how the locations of this type of cloud electrification and the locations of discharges are related? In my opinion there is no immediate connection and your results confirm this.
4. The word “distribution” often appears in the text in different meanings, which is confusing. Sometimes it occurs in contexts that are unusual to me (e.g. L297, L325, L331, L338).
5. The case study is described in detail and its results are formulated as a general feature. At least that is my understanding and I cannot agree with that.
6. The structure of the study is not appropriate. Instead of Summary should be Conclusions. The Discussion contains explanations which are not supported by results or I do not see it. If the authors express their hypotheses, then this should be clearly stated.

 

Specific comments:

The abstract should be more fluent with less details and “fl” should be explain.

I think that you use MCS and MSC as an acronym of a mesoscale convective system.

L148 – Could you briefly describe how you perform vertical interpolation?

L224 – Are data from 08:00 really better than later data. I suppose that data are measured at 14:00.

L348 – I do not understand “did …”.

L378-379 - It should be clear whether there were data and if not, then it should be clearly marked in the figure.

L409 – What do you mean by “the normal distribution range”.

L419 – What do you mean by “maximum” here?

L438 – Please add information on units of contour levels.

L435-437 – This sentence is very strong and I am not sure that it is supported by results. Might be I do not exactly understand. Could you clarify it?

L478 - Here and elsewhere you speak about updraft. Can you describe how you determine updraft?

L551-552 – I do not think that focus is on the formation of environment. Could you explain it?

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

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Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript describes a thorough study of the characteristics (radar reflectivity, altitude, temperature) of the regions where lightning flashes originate in mesoscale convective systems.  The paper is very well written and well organized.  The authors compare their results with those in previous literature.  The analysis covers 14 storm systems in the vicinity of Chongqing, China, which is well covered by radar and a VHF lightning mapping system.  The results are discussed in aggregate over the 14 storms, and in more detail for a case study.  The manuscript is nearly acceptable for publication in current form.  I recommend publication after attention to the details listed below.

lines 36 and 39:   Carrey --> Carey

lines 191 to 195:  If there is a daily sounding at Chongqing, why can't the temperature profile from the same day as the storm be used rather than an average temperature profile from 4 summer months?  How much variability is there in the temperature vs. altitude profiles during the 4 months?

Table 2:  Here it looks like sounding data for individual case days is used to determine CAPE and altitudes of specific temperatures.  This does not agree with what was said in lines 191 to 195.  Please explain or remove the statements in lines 191-195.

line 283:  ....are slightly increased in altitude.

lne 373:  .....a similar trend to that of the LD grids (Fig. 4a), but while the HD and LD frequencies are similar from 1715 to 1751, the later LD peak is more pronounced than the HD peak.

line 422:  19:39 --> 17:39

line 431:  ....the 45-dBZ echo top in Fig. 5c is beyond 7.5 km.    This does not look correct.  Looks more more like about 7 km.

line 450:  ...between the initiation times of the four flashes are....

Fig. 6 caption (line 466):  ....time differences relative to the first one.....

line 561:   harsh --> stringent

 

 

 

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I am satisfied with the corrected version.