Analysis of lightning activity in two thunderstorm systems producing sprites in France

Two sprite-producing mesoscale convective systems above the South-Western part of France are studied. Three sprite events during the first night and seven during the second night were captured. Except for two events, the sprites could be associated with causative positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) discharges in the stratiform region of the storm. The analysis of lightning activity reveals that in both nights sprites occurred when lightning activity decreased rapidly and the ratio of +CGs to the total number of CGs decreased slightly. The average peak current of sprite-producing lightning was lower than 60 kA, in agreement with other observations. The delay times of sprites to their SPCGs varied from 57 to 140 m s and no correlation between events’ delay and shape was established.