Electrification Signatures Observed during the Lake Effect Electrification Project

The Lake Effect Electrification (LEE) project observed lake-effect storms in the lee of Lake Ontario around the Tug Hill Plateau during the winter of 2022-2023 (November through the beginning of February). Observations included the deployment of a 16-station Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) surrounding the plateau by Georgia Tech Research Institute and the National Severe Storms Laboratory, with targeted DOW observations, environmental soundings, snowfall measurements, and in-situ electric field and particle imager soundings into lake-effect storms with electrification potential. There were 11 Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs), 4 of which produced a total of 98 lightning flashes within range of the LMA. Additionally, there were 10 events which produced 159 lightning flashes captured by the LMA with temperatures below freezing in the domain which were not sampled by the full suite of LEE instrumentation, providing a comparison of other winter electrification modes within the study domain. We will present some of the lightning flashes and their respective radar signatures observed during the project.