Space‐based lightning imagers have shown that complex cloud scenes consisting of multiple tall convective features, anvil clouds, and warm boundary cloud layers are illuminated by lightning in many different ways depending on where the lightning occurs and how energetic it is. Modifications to the optical lightning signals from radiative transfer in the cloud medium can lead to reductions in detection efficiency and location accuracy for these instruments and can also cause some of the optical signals that are detected to have unexpected spatial energy distributions. In this study, we perform Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations of optical lightning emissions in clouds with complex 3‐D geometries to shed some light on the origins of certain irregular radiance patterns that have been recorded from orbit. We show that diffuse reflections off nearby cloud faces can explain lightning signals in nonelectrified clouds, tall clouds can result in poor optical transmission and suppressed radiances that could lead to missed events and that particularly favorable viewing conditions can cause otherwise normal lightning to produce a superbolt that is orders of magnitude brighter than the same flash seen from a different angle.

中文翻译：

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通过复杂的3D云场景模拟光闪电信号的传输

天基闪电成像仪显示，由多个高对流特征，铁砧云和温暖的边界云层组成的复杂云场景，可以根据闪电发生的位置和强度，以多种不同的方式被闪电照亮。来自云介质中辐射传递的光学闪电信号的修改可能导致这些仪器的检测效率和定位精度降低，并且还可能导致某些检测到的光学信号具有意外的空间能量分布。在这项研究中，我们对具有复杂3D几何形状的云中的雷电发射进行了蒙特卡洛辐射传递模拟，以阐明从轨道上记录的某些不规则辐射方向图的起源。