Characterization of thunderstorms in South China that produced gigantic jets in a burst manner

 

Since the summer season of 2020, with the contributions from amateurs sited at different places mainly in the southern part of China, we have obtained the optical observations (most in colorful mode with relatively high image resolution) for nearly 1000 transient luminous events (TLEs). One of the major findings is that the coastal thunderstorms typically originating from somewhere in South China Sea could produce a burst of gigantic jets (GJs) during a special stage of its lifetime. We selected three thunderstorm cases of this situation and combine all available observational datasets (such as satellite brightness temperature, lightning detection, and radar reflectivity, etc.) to characterize the parent thunderstorms from several different perspectives. The general results regarding the features of thunderstorms in South China capable of producing GJs including a burst of overshooting thundercloud top penetrating the local tropopause, active lightning activity between the major charge regions, and also the elevated bottom of the thunderstorms. More detailed analyses regarding the genesis of GJ outbreak during a short time period of these thunderstorms are being implemented.