The distribution of hydrometeors in thunderstorms is still under investigation as well as the process of electrification in thunderclouds leading to lightning discharges. One indicator of cloud electrification might be high values of the Linear Depolarization Ratio (LDR) at higher vertical levels. This study focuses on LDR values derived from vertically pointing cloud radars and the distribution of five hydrometeor species during 38 days with thunderstorms which occurred in 2018 and 2019 in Central Europe, close to our radar site. The study shows improved algorithms for de-aliasing, the derivation of vertical air velocity and the classification of hydrometeors in clouds using radar data. The comparison of vertical profiles with observed lightning discharges in the vicinity of the radar site (≤ 1 km) suggested that cloud radar data can indirectly identify “lightning” areas by high LDR values observed at higher gates due to the alignment of ice crystals, likely because of an intensified electric field in thunderclouds. Simultaneously, the results indicated that at higher gates, there is a mixture of several hydrometeor species, which suggests a well-known electrification process by collisions of hydrometeors.

中文翻译：

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雷暴中水流星的分布和线性去极化率

雷暴中水汽的分布以及雷云中导致闪电放电的电气化过程仍在研究中。云层带电的一项指标可能是在较高的垂直位置具有较高的线性去极化比（LDR）值。这项研究的重点是从垂直指向的云雷达获得的LDR值以及在38天有雷暴的38天中的五个水凝物种类的分布，这发生在2018年和2019年中欧，靠近我们的雷达站点。研究显示了使用雷达数据进行去混叠，垂直风速推导和云中水汽分类的改进算法。垂直剖面与在雷达站点附近（≤1 km）观察到的雷电放电的比较表明，由于冰晶的排列，云雷达数据可以通过在较高的闸门处观察到的高LDR值间接识别“闪电”区域因为雷云中电场的增强。同时，结果表明，在较高的闸门处，存在几种水凝物种类的混合物，这表明通过水凝物碰撞而产生的众所周知的起电过程。