Current thunderstorm electric field data analysis methods provide only an incomplete understanding of thunderstorm structure and evolution, since these methods typically rely on data from a single weather balloon payload. The electric field measured by a single payload is dependent on both height and time, and it is not possible to separate the two. However, this limitation can be overcome if multiple payloads are used, enabling novel data analysis. First, considering a given time, measurements made by multiple instruments at different altitudes provide a view of the altitude profile of the electric field and how that profile evolves with time. Second, considering a given altitude, measurements made by multiple instruments as they pass that altitude at different times provide an estimate of the average current flowing past that altitude and how that current varies with height, though correction for field changes due to lightning is necessary. Third, such observations can be used as the target for simulated storm behavior in a fitting process to simultaneously determine properties of the charging current, storm geometry, and lightning properties. Tests of these techniques on simple simulations of thunderstorms and lightning show promise and suggest a useful path forward for multi-point measurement of thunderstorm electrical structures.

Knowledge of the electric field structures inside thunderstorms is necessary for understanding of thunderstorm electrification, lightning initiation, and terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF) production. However, existing knowledge comes largely from weather balloon measurements that provide a limited view that entangles motion of the balloon (spatial variability) with overall evolution of the storm (temporal variability). More advanced interpretation of such data and connection of it to the broader context requires comprehensive modeling of the full process. We describe such a model, built on simple approximations of electrification processes, the resulting currents, charge structures, and electric fields, including a crude probabilistic lightning model. The result is a reasonably realistic model of thunderstorm field and its evolution that can be used to predict possible balloon measurements of electric field, with results that are in good qualitative agreement with existing balloon data. The resulting electric field is then also used as input to a Geant4 simulation of relativistic electron behavior to understand when and where TGF production is likely to occur in the dynamic thunderstorm electric field. The combination of meteorological drivers of electrification, constrained by comparison to balloon data, and in turn how they may give rise to TGFs, provides a unique tool to aid in our understanding of such processes and how they are linked.