Cloud flash

From Glossary of Meteorology



cloud flash

(Also called intracloud flash, cloud-to-cloud flash.) A lightning discharge occurring between a positively charged region and a negatively charged region, both of which may lie in the same cloud.

The most frequent type of cloud discharge is one between a main positively charged region and a main negatively charged region. Cloud flashes tend to outnumber cloud-to-ground flashes. In general, the channel of a cloud flash will be wholly surrounded by cloud. Hence, the channel's luminosity typically produces a diffuse glow when seen from outside the cloud and this widespread glow is called sheet lightning.


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