LONG CONTINUING CURRENT IN NEGATIVE LIGHTNING GROUND FLASHES

Statistics on the occurrence of long continuing current as a function of the number of strokes per flash, the stroke order, and the duration of the interstroke interval preceding the continuing current have been derived from electric field and other records of 346 flashes from five separate studies in New Mexico. Electric field records of 76 flashes were analyzed for the duration of the leaders preceding strokes initiating long continuing current and for the initial electric field peak of both strokes initiating long continuing current and strokes preceding those initiating long continuing current. -from Authors