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We review the basic issues of the initiation and development of the lightning discharge, which top the list of the most important and yet unsolved problems of atmospheric electricity. The main challenges of creating theoretical models are due to the fact that the value of the electric strength of atmospheric air exceeds the peak electric fields measured in thunderstorm clouds by approximately an order of magnitude. Among several concepts proposed to explain the process of initiation of a lightning discharge at different times, two ideas stand apart, namely, the hypothesis of the lightning birth caused by the initiation of a positive streamer from the surface of a hydrometeor and the hypothesis of lightning initiation due to the development of a runaway electron breakdown. However, none of these approaches has become universally recognized or dominant due to various difficulties. A fundamentally new mechanism of lightning discharge initiation, which has been proposed recently, is based on the noise-induced kinetic transition occurring in the stochastic field of charged hydrometeors. The proposed approach looks like a sequence of discharge activity transitions from small spatial scales to increasingly larger ones. One of the main features of the proposed hypothesis is that the generation of streamers is determined by the level of small- and mesoscale fluctuations of the electric field in the thunderstorm and is essentially independent of the large-scale field. In this case, the role of the large-scale field is to ensure interaction of the initiated streamers, when they start developing mainly in the direction specified by this field. In the final section of the review, we discuss the fundamental role of the polarity asymmetry in the processes of the initiation and further development of lightning discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• M-component incident wave in the +CG channel coupled with the first stroke of a distant –CG. • A branched positive leader intermittently extended via bidirectional transients separated by inactive intervals of about 5 ms. • The bidirectional transients, moving negative charge in the backward direction, triggered a downward negative leader, resulting in a three-stroke –CG. • A subsequent-stroke negative leader, moving through virgin air, entered the lower part of residual (non-luminous) first-stroke channel, in addition to creating a new ground termination about 950 m away. • Ultraviolet images of lightning are presented for a negative cloud-to-ground lightning flash with two ground terminations. Based on recent observations at the Lightning Observatory in Gainesville (LOG), Florida, we present three examples of very unusual behavior of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes: (a) One +CG and one tower-terminated -CG separated by 11 km, were briefly coupled, so that positive charge was in effect drawn from the ground at the position of –CG and injected into the ground at the position of +CG. That unusual interaction was accomplished by the initiation of M-component incident wave in the +CG channel by the leader of the first stroke of the –CG. (b) A branched positive leader intermittently extended via bidirectional transients separated by inactive intervals of about 5 ms, on average. One of the bidirectional transients, moving negative charge in the backward direction, triggered a downward negative leader, resulting in a three-stroke –CG. (c) A subsequent-stroke negative leader, moving through virgin air, entered the lower part of residual (non-luminous) first-stroke channel, in addition to creating a new ground termination about 950 m away. Studying unusual lightning behavior helps to improve our understanding of the variability of basic lightning processes and to identify new potential lightning hazards to various objects and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of thunderstorm-related enhancements of fluxes of energetic radiation and particles at ground level suggest that removal of mid-level negative charge from the cloud by negative cloud-to-ground (-CG) lightning flashes or normal intracloud (IC) flashes serves to abruptly terminate those enhancements. However, it was not clear if the electron-accelerating electric field responsible for flux enhancements at ground was primarily between the main negative charge region and ground (produced due to the dominant effect of negative cloud charge) or between the mid-level negative and lower positive charge regions inside the thundercloud. Here, we report that these flux enhancements can be also abruptly terminated by inverted intracloud flashes and hybrid lightning flashes (inverted IC followed by negative CG). Based on the analysis of 13 events of these two types, we provide first evidence that the electric field between the mid-level negative and lower positive charge regions in the thundercloud can be responsible for the flux enhancements at ground level. • Lightning discharges can influence the evolution of enhanced fluxes of energetic radiation and particles (TGEs). • TGEs can be abruptly terminated by inverted intracloud flashes (ICs) and by hybrid flashes (inverted IC followed by -CG). • Electron accelerator between main negative and lower positive cloud charge regions is capable of producing TGEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]