Monitoring lightning and its location is important for understanding thunderstorm activity and revealing lightning discharge mechanisms. This is often realized based on very low-frequency/low-frequency (VLF/LF) signals, very high-frequency (VHF) signals, and optical radiation signals generated during the lightning discharge process. The development of lightning monitoring and location technology worldwide has largely evolved from a single station to multiple stations, from the return strokes (RSs) of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes to total lightning flashes, from total lightning flashes to lightning discharge channels, and from ground-based lightning observations to satellite-based lightning observations, all of which have aided our understanding of atmospheric electricity. Lightning monitoring and positioning technology in China has kept up with international advances. In terms of lightning monitoring based on VLF/LF signals, single-station positioning technology has been developed, and a nationwide CG lightning detection network has been built since the end of the twentieth century. Research on total lightning flash positioning technology began at the beginning of the 21st century, and precision total lightning flash positioning technology has improved significantly over the last 10 years. In terms of positioning technology based on VHF signals, narrowband interferometers and wideband interferometers have been developed, and long-baseline radiation source positioning technology and continuous interferometers have been developed over the last ten years, significantly improving the channel characterization ability of lightning locations. In terms of lightning monitoring based on optical signals, China has for the first time developed lightning mapping imagers loaded by geosynchronous satellites, providing an important means for large-scale and all-weather lightning monitoring.

This study investigates the initial stage (IS) and return stroke (RS) currents of 50 triggered lightning flashes (TLFs) that were conducted in southern China. The IS of the negative TLFs has a longer duration and larger average current, charge transfer, and action integral than those reported elsewhere, with geometric means (GMs) of 347.9 ms, 132.5 A, 45.1 C, and 10.0 × 10³ A² s, respectively. Two positive TLFs containing no RS have much greater average currents, charge transfers, and action integrals in the IS when compared with the negative TLFs. The RS has a greater peak current (17.2 kA; GM, same to below), charge transfer within 1 ms (1.3 C), and action integral within 1 ms (5.8 × 10³ A² s), and shorter 10% to 90% rise time (0.4 μs) than elsewhere. The peak current is prominently correlated with the rate of rise, charge transfer within 1 ms, and action integral within 1 ms. Furthermore, when the total duration of the RS and any following continuing currents is longer than 40 ms, the peak current, charge transfer within 1 ms, and action integral within 1 ms of the RS are seldom greater than 25 kA, 2.6 C, and 15 × 10³ A² s, respectively. It is indicated that TLFs containing RSs tend to have a longer duration but a smaller charge transfer during the IS than those without RS. The peak current of the RS is weakly correlated with its preceding silence period when there was no channel base current.

This study evaluates how clouds evolve into thunderstorms in terms of the turbulence characteristics producing the first flash. Observations of 57 (39) isolated thunderstorm (non‐thunderstorm) cells during 2016/2017 in Southern China are provided by an S‐band polarimetric radar and three independent lightning location systems. The vertical turbulence characteristics of clouds associated with thunderstorms are obviously different from non‐thunderstorms. For thunderstorms, the maximum of the eddy dissipation rate (mean value in each height layer) in the entire height is 0.19 m² s⁻³, which occurs at the first flash stage, and the achievable height of turbulence exceeds the −30°C layer. For non‐thunderstorms, however, the maximum is 0.12 m² s⁻³, and the achievable turbulence height hardly exceeds the −10°C layer. Additionally, the turbulence intensities of the locations where the initial discharge pulse events of the first flashes occur are weak. These turbulence characteristics are useful for lightning nowcasting.

In summer of 2019, the bandwidth of magnetic field sensor with relatively high sensitivity was extended to 1.2 MHz during the triggered lightning experiment of Field Experiment Base on Lightning Sciences, China Meteorological Administration (CMA‐FEBLS) in Conghua, Guangdong Province. The measurements with the new magnetic fields reveal the presence of microsecond‐scale magnetic pulses during the entire duration of upward positive leader (UPL), including the quiet stage when only few signals can be discerned in previous observations, which indicates that the UPL generally propagates in a stepwise manner during the initial stage of triggered lightning. Synchronous mapping observations from the broadband VHF interferometer shows that the VHF radiation corresponds to the onset of individual magnetic pulses, indicating that the VHF signals are radiated by the breakdown processes of individual stepping, and these breakdown events launch the meter‐scale current pulses as the radiation source of individual magnetic pulses.