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[1] In this paper we present lightning statistics for more than three million cloud-toground (CG) flashes located during the 10-year operation period 1992-2001 of the Austrian lightning location system (LLS) called ALDIS (Austrian Lightning Detection and Information System). Like a majority of other LLS operated worldwide, ALDIS underwent configuration changes and continuous performance improvement. Since these changes can alter the lightning statistics, we also relate the variation of the individual lightning parameters during the period of operation to changes in ALDIS configuration and performance. This analysis should be useful to other network operators and data users. Flash densities in Austria are normally between 0.5 and 4 flashes km À2 yr À1 depending on terrain. Flashes are classified as negative, positive, or bipolar. Seventeen percent of the flashes were classified as positive, and 2.3% of the total number of flashes were bipolar. Fifty percent of the positive multiple-stroke flashes were bipolar flashes with positive first stroke; this influences the positive flash multiplicity and interstroke interval statistics. Compared to many other networks, the ALDIS network reports much lower median negative peak currents. For 2001, the median first-stroke peak current for negative flashes was 10 kA. Estimated multiplicity of negative flashes for the 10-year period is affected by the algorithm that groups strokes into flashes, as well as the improved DE of the network as a result of the integration of ALDIS into the European LLS (EUCLID). This performance improvement also resulted in a higher number of single-stroke flashes.Interstroke interval and median first-stroke peak current show a clear correlation with multiplicity for negative flashes, irrespective of detection efficiency. Negative flashes with higher multiplicity show smaller average interstroke intervals and larger first stroke median peak currents. No correlation between interstroke interval and stroke order was found. On average, regions with higher flash density show slightly higher flash multiplicity.

Within the framework of the international field campaign COPS (Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study), a large suite of state-of-the-art meteorological instrumentation was operated, partially combined for the first time. This includes networks of in situ and remote-sensing systems such as the Global Positioning System as well as a synergy of multi-wavelength passive and active remote-sensing instruments such as advanced radar and lidar systems. The COPS field phase was performed from 01 June to 31 August 2007 in a low-mountain area in southwestern Germany/eastern France covering the Vosges mountains, the Rhine valley and the Black Forest mountains. The collected data set covers the entire evolution of convective precipitation events in complex terrain from their initiation, to their development and mature phase until their decay. Eighteen Intensive Observation Periods with 37 operation days and eight additional Special Observation Periods were performed, providing a comprehensive data set covering different forcing conditions. In this article, an overview of the COPS scientific strategy, the field phase, and its first accomplishments is given. Highlights of the campaign are illustrated with several measurement examples. It is demonstrated that COPS research provides new insight into key processes leading to convection initiation and to the modification of precipitation by orography, in the improvement of quantitative precipitation forecasting by the assimilation of new observations, and in the performance of ensembles of convection-permitting models in complex terrain.

SUMMARYA case of orographic precipitation in the Alps on 20 September 1999 was studied using several models, along with rain-gauge and radar data. The objective of the study is to describe the orographic transformation of an air mass, including multi-scale aspects. Several new and some conventional diagnostic quantities are estimated, including drying ratio, precipitation ef ciency, buoyancy work, condensed-water residence time, parcel changes in heat, moisture and altitude, and dominant space-and time-scales.For the case considered, the drying ratio was about 35%. Precipitation ef ciency values are ambiguous due to repeated ascent and descent over small-scale terrain. The sign of buoyancy work changed during the event, indicating a shift from stratiform orographic to weak convective clouds. Cloud-water residence times are different for the two mesoscale models (400 compared to 1000 s) due to different cloud-physical formulations. The two mesoscale models agree that the dominant spatial-scale of lifting and precipitation is about 10 km; smaller than the scale of the main Alpine massif. Trajectory analysis of air crossing the Alps casts doubt on the classic model of föhn. Few parcels exhibit classic pattern of moist ascent followed by dry descent. Parcels that gain latent heat descend only brie y, before rising into the middle troposphere. Parcels that descend along the lee slope, originate in the middle troposphere and gain little, or even lose, latent heat during the transit. As parcels seek their proper buoyancy level downstream, a surprising scrambling of the air mass occurs.Radar data con rm the model prediction that the rainfall eld is tightly controlled by local terrain on scales as small as 10 km, rather than the full 100 km cross-Alpine scale. A curious pulsing of the precipitation is seen, indicating either drifting moisture anomalies or weak convection.