This study utilizes lightning monitoring data from the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) spanning 2010 to 2022, combined with grid-based precipitation data from the CN05.1 network of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and reanalysis data (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5th Generation, ERA5) from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), to investigate lightning activity in the Guangdong-Hainan region of China, an area with the highest frequency of lightning strikes. By analyzing the spatiotemporal characteristics of lightning activity, the study explores the relationship between lightning and various atmospheric environmental factors. The results indicate that lightning exhibits distinct seasonal (more frequent in summer than winter), regional (more frequent in the south than the north), and geographical (more frequent along coastlines than inland) patterns. Lightning activity is strongly correlated with Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), precipitation (P), the product of CAPE and precipitation (CAPE × P), and the K index. The spatial distribution of lightning is most strongly correlated with atmospheric elements in western Guangdong. Further analysis reveals that lightning is most likely to occur when Convective Inhibition Energy (CIN) ranges from 50 to 100 J kg⁻¹ and CAPE ranges from 500 to 1500 J kg⁻¹. Both excessively low CIN values and excessively high CAPE values result in reduced lightning activity. Lightning is most active under relative humidity (RH) conditions between 60% and 90%, with very low lightning formation occurring when RH falls below 30%. In Hainan, the probability of lightning occurrence is higher than in other regions under similar RH conditions or high CIN values.

Dust and trace water vapor are fundamental components and critical drivers of atmosphere-surface interactions on Mars. Here, we report on an observation of Martian atmospheric dust and hydrogen by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), on the vertically exposed surfaces of Zhurong's MarSCoDe Calibration Targets (MCCT) during a non-dusty season in 2021. Spectral unmixing revealed a temporally continuous dust deposition consisting of a homogenized mixture of global dust with some local input. The shot-to-shot LIBS data analysis shows a depth-decaying surficial hydrogen signal correlating with dust component and the different porosities of calibration targets. This pattern is most consistent with dominant hydrogen source from dust-bound hydrogen, though a minor contribution from water vapor adsorbed on the MCCTs can exist. A qualitative model is thus proposed to account for the observations: during the non-dusty season, the locally interactive atmosphere transports and mixes local material with global dust through the collisional resuspension of the fine-grain portion of the soil under a low wind speed; the hydrogen related to these eolian material and/or to the atmospheric water vapor leads to the decaying pattern in the H signal. Future laboratory experiments are required to constrain the origin of the hydrogen observed in the LIBS shot profiles.

As a violent energy release process in the troposphere, the effects of thunderstorms extend far beyond the lower atmosphere. Through mechanisms such as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs), and various forms of energetic particle precipitation (particularly lightning-induced electron precipitation, LEP), thunderstorms establish a multi-layer coupling link extending from the troposphere directly to the ionosphere and even magnetosphere. This paper provides a systematic review of the latest observational evidence and mechanistic research regarding the impact of thunderstorms and lightning on the upper atmosphere. First, focusing on the TLEs such as Sprites, Elves (Emission of Light and Very-low-frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources), and Gigantic Jets (GJs), we discuss their transient modulation effects on the conductivity and electron density distribution of the lower ionosphere (D-region) across various spatiotemporal scales. On this basis, the electromagnetic and mechanical mechanisms of upward energy transfer via quasielectrostatic (QE) fields, electromagnetic pulses (EMP), and dynamical waves are analyzed. Subsequently, integrating Very Low Frequency (VLF) remote sensing technology, the scientific value of Early VLF perturbations and LOng Recovery Events (LORE) in diagnosing the lower ionosphere disturbances is summarized. Finally, in the framework of the context of the Global Electric Circuit (GEC) balance and the chemical evolution of the middle and upper atmosphere, the paper identifies key challenges and future directions for research, including multi-instrument observations, multi-physics coupled numerical simulations, and feedbacks within the climate change.

Lightning constitutes a significant threat to human life and property. Effective lightning forecasting significantly mitigates associated losses. However, a critical gap persists in the lack of methods capable of providing precise lightning forecasts at high spatial resolution (1 & times;1 km). To address this limitation, we propose high-resolution U-Net (HRUnet), a novel deep learning (DL) model integrating the U-Net encoder-decoder architecture with inceptionres-convolutional block attention module (IR-CBAM) block for temporal feature enhancement and PixelShuffle for spatial resolution preservation. Furthermore, we introduce a specialized focus loss function to alleviate the severe class imbalance inherent in lightning prediction tasks. HRUnet was evaluated using weather radar and lightning data from Binzhou, Shandong Province, China. Experimental results demonstrate that: 1) the IR-CBAM module, PixelShuffle module, and focus loss function yield improvements of 7.22%, 0.26%, and 4.02%, respectively, in average equitable threat score (ETS) compared to the baseline U-Net; collectively, HRUnet achieves a 10.86% absolute ETS improvement and 2) on the test set, HRUnet attains performance metrics of 0.9843 hit rate (HR), 0.6015 probability of detection (POD), 0.2856 false alarm rate (FAR), and 0.4713 ETS. HRUnet outperforms the other four state-of-the-art DL models and demonstrates the best capability in forecasting the initiation, development, and dissipation of lightning clusters among them.

In 2026, China's Tianwen-2 mission is scheduled to arrive at the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (also known as 2016 HO3) to conduct close-range detection and sample return operations. The Tianwen-2 spacecraft carries the Asteroid Core Scan Radar (ACSR), a dual-frequency radar capable of both penetration and imaging. During the hovering phase, the ACSR will utilize Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar observations to characterize the dielectric properties and internal structure of the asteroid.In contrast to other planetary orbiting radars, such as the MARSIS on Mars, the operational environment of the ACSR differs. Firstly, Kamoʻoalewa features a small radius (~40-100 m) and a short rotation period (~0.467 h) compared to Mars. Thus, unlike an orbital observation of a large-scale target such as Mars, the ACSR continuously illuminates a rotating asteroid, resulting in more complex, time-varying scattering conditions. Secondly, due to the ACSR's close-range observation altitude (~600 m), the spherical nature of the antenna's radiated field cannot be ignored. Finally, given the small size of the target, the strong surface clutter may overlap the weaker subsurface echoes from the asteroid’s subsurface. Therefore, an effective and precise surface clutter suppression is essential for revealing the internal structure of Kamo'oalewa.In this study, we will present the simulation, separation, and analysis based on the working circumstances of the ACSR. To address the complex surface conditions, the proposed surface clutter simulation is based on a physical optics method and considers the curvature of the spherical wavefront. Besides, a joint cross-correlation and moment-matching procedure is deployed to calibrate the potential orbital fluctuations. Our result shows that this approach works well in separating internal signals from radar observations. It will provide essential support for the radar data processing and scientific interpretation of the upcoming Tianwen-2 mission.

Stratospheric intrusions (SI) is a natural source of tropospheric O3, yet quantifying their contribution remains challenging in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of China, a region characterized by high anthropogenic emissions, distant from the stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT) hotspots, but vulnerable to the topographic effect of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Combining ozonesondes, reanalysis and trajectory simulations, we find that tropopause foldings are the primary trigger for SI, facilitating the injection of stratospheric airmasses, while the TP promotes their downstream transport. Furthermore, we establish an SI climatology by detecting the distinct SI chemical features from long-term ozonesondes with sufficient constraints. SI events are most frequent and deepest in winter, but induce larger O3 enhancements in the upper troposphere in summer. SI seasonality is jointly controlled by large-scale STT background and local conditions. These findings can advance our understanding of stratospheric impact on city clusters distant from STT hotspots.

During the first superior conjunction of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe in October 2021, its downlink signal received by the Wuqing 70-m radio telescope passed within 4.53 solar radii of the Sun. The signal was significantly perturbed by the solar wind, providing a mechanism to probe coronal activity. We analyze the Doppler frequency scintillation spectrum of the solar wind within 10 solar radii to derive a characteristic frequency scintillation parameter. Statistical analysis indicates this parameter increases as the signal path approaches the Sun, with notable anomalies observed on October 5, 13, and 15. Comparisons with SOHO and SDO data reveal strong spatio-temporal correlations between these scintillation anomalies and coronal activity. We demonstrate that this parameter effectively identifies solar phenomena, including coronal streamers, high-speed solar wind, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Quantitative analysis confirms a distinct temporal correlation and delay between frequency scintillation and solar wind speed changes, validating the feasibility of spatially localizing solar activity.

This study systematically analyzes the composition and origin of materials in the Chang’e-4 landing area (Von Kármán crater) using 131 in-situ lunar soil spectra from the first 60 lunar days obtained by Visible and Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer onboard Yutu-2 rover and spectral data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3). Results show that the 2μm absorption center of the landing area aligns with that of Finsen ejecta, while the 1μm absorption center shifts toward longer wavelength, suggesting an enrichment in olivine or glass of the landing area. The surface materials at the landing area might originate from the distal ejecta of Finsen crater.Based on the Chang'e-2 Digital Orthophoto Map(DOM) data and the geological characteristics along the traverse area of Yutu-2 rover, we found that the rock types in and around the Von Kármán crater can be classified into three categories. (1)Basalts formed in two different periods. The late-stage basalt is flood lava (approximately 320m thick), originating from Leibniz crater. The old basalts represent the basement rock at the bottom of Kármán crater; (2)Widely distributed weathered deposits. Although their spectra are similar to those of Finsen ejecta, these deposits are located at the distal end of the ejecta rays, exhibit variable thickness, and reveal local fragmented blocks beneath them. This suggests that the deposits likely represent a mixture of ejecta material and local substrate; (3) Highland rocks. The basement rocks that predate the Von Kármán and Von Kármán M craters are represented by a large number of highland rocks, which form the rim plateau around the Von Kármán crater. The distal position and heterogeneous thickness of the Finsen ejecta at the landing area indicate that the Finsen-forming impact event only modified the composition of landing area surface regolith at millimeter- to centimeter-scale depths, without causing significant topographic alteration.

We investigate the evolution of a supercell storm within a quasi‐linear convective system (QLCS) that occurred in the Beijing area on 12 June 2022. Using high spatiotemporal resolution observations from a C‐band phased array radar (PAR), assimilated into a four‐dimensional variational data assimilation system, we primarily analyze dynamical processes contributing to the development of the supercell storm and its associated mesocyclone. Our study shows that just before the convective cell is triggered, a significant convergence zone develops to the west of the terrain, forming several meso‐γ vortices near the surface. During the merger of the convective cell and the QLCS from upper to lower levels, a strong downdraft generated by the QLCS enhances low‐level horizontal convergence, further producing a stretching effect on the vortices within the storm and significantly increasing vertical vorticity. With the formation of the mesocyclone in the mature stage of supercell storm, the height of the rotational center rises to 4.5 km, and the maximum rotational velocity reaches 20 m/s. Our results indicate that the surface convergence lines and the meso‐γ vortices along them strengthen low‐level convergence and generate strong updrafts, triggering the initial storm. These intense updrafts transform horizontal vorticity into vertical vorticity and transport it upward. Additionally, the process of convective merging leads to strengthen low‐level horizontal convergence, which forcibly stretches the mesovortex, enhancing vertical vorticity and allowing the convective storm to develop in a strong, organized manner and form the supercell storm.

Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) has become an essential tool for planetary exploration in China’s deep space exploration missions, enabling subsurface imaging and geological investigations in advancing our understanding of the lunar and Martian evolution. This paper provides an comprehensive overview of the successful application of GPR in China’s deep space exploration missions, including Chang’E-3 (CE-3), Chang’E-4 (CE-4), Chang’E-5 (CE-5), Chang’E-6 (CE-6) and Tianwen-1 missions. The study highlights key technological advancements, scientific discoveries, and the role of GPR in sample retrieval, and subsurface composition analysis. Furthermore, we discuss future prospects of GPR in upcoming lunar and Asteroid missions, emphasizing its continued importance in planetary exploration and resource identification.

Comparative analysis of positive and negative altitude-triggered lightning striking a 30-m tower beneath 35-m floating wires reveals detailed bidirectional leader processes. It provides the first observational evidence of bidirectional leader behavior in positive altitude-triggered lightning and highlights the connection process's driving effect on leader initiation/development. In positive triggered lightning, the bidirectional leader system first emerged from the wire bottom with positive polarity, rapidly connected with the tower and generated an impulsive current wave initiating an upward negative leader from the wire top. The wire ends generated different E-field distortions, but less significant than the different initiation thresholds of positive and negative leaders. Consequently, the positive leader always initiates first for both triggering cases, regardless of background E-field direction and formation position. Wire end's E-field distortion alone was insufficient to initiate negative leader. Besides slow charge accumulation from the opposite end's positive leader, impulsive current surge is another effective/indispensable abrupt driver.

The Chang'e-4 mission lander and the rover landed in the Von Karman impact crater in the South Pole Aitken (SPA) basin on the far side of the moon. Using the optical images and spectral data obtained from 57 exploration points during the 60 lunar months by the Chang'e-4 rover, we have acquired information on the shallow structure of the lunar soil and the composition of the lunar surface materials. The results show that the main demonstration types in the landing area are basalt, weathered deposits, and highland rocks. The lunar soil layer in the landing area can be divided into two categories in terms of surface morphology and deep thickness, namely, thin layer lunar soil with light gray, less gravel, and less alteration, and thick layer lunar soil with dark color, more gravel, and more alteration. It was found that they alternate and appear as strip like structures, extending in a northeast southwest direction. At the same time, research on spectral composition data shows that its composition is uniform, and the composition of the landing zone is consistent with that of the Finsen impact crater, but it contains more olivine and glass components. The shallow radar research results show that the deep part of the landing area is divided into four layers: weathered accumulation layer, gravel layer, coarse gravel layer, basalt basement layer, and bedrock layer. Based on the above results, we found that the landing zone can be divided into the following stages after the formation of the Von Karman impact crater: the Imbrian basalt filling period, during which the basalt bedrock at the bottom of the Von Karman impact crater was formed; Next is the Eratosthenian impact modification period, during which large impact craters were formed around it, and the Von Karman impact crater was modified. The ejecta from nearby impact craters contributed to the accumulation and weathering products of the landmass to a certain extent.

Accurate lightning forecasting plays a crucial role in mitigating the hazards posed by severe convective weather. This study presents an AutoWeight-Net for radar-based lightning prediction, leveraging S-band radar data from Binzhou, Shandong Province, collected between June 1 and August 31, 2024. The radar parameters used include CR, VIL, PPI (0.5° and 1.5°), and TOPS (18 dBZ and 45 dBZ thresholds). The AutoWeight-Net is a U-Net based model which has the following innovation: (1) Adding a channel-wise weighting module at the model’s input, enabling the network to learn the importance of each radar feature. (2) We replace the convolution layers in the lowest resolution of the U-Net with attention layers, allowing the model to focus on areas with thick cloud cover, which are more susceptible to lightning. (3) A custom loss function is designed to address the severe class imbalance between lightning and non-lightning samples. The model predicts the probability of lightning occurrence within the next 90 minutes, at 30-minute intervals, and at a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km. Experimental results demonstrate 99% accuracy, 62.8% precision, and 73.5% false detection rate, underscoring the effectiveness of the proposed improvements in enhancing lightning forecast performance. These findings hold promise for real-time operational forecasting and risk management in regions prone to convective weather.

Vertical transport carries airmasses from different sources of tropospheric O 3 including photochemical production and stratospheric intrusions, and is crucial for vertical O 3 variability. Based on temporally dense ozonesondes over northern China, this study reports an anomalous vertical O 3 distribution characterized by a “bottom‐heavy” structure. Specifically, O 3 well exceeded the normal values in the middle‐to‐lower troposphere due to the stratospherically intruded airmasses (SIA), but was sharply reduced in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region because of convectively lofted air transported from the Tibetan Plateau. Guided by the discovery of such a vertical O 3 structure, we further assess the SIA contribution to tropospheric O 3 using multi‐year AIRS satellite observations, and find that SIA appear frequently during summer and lead to short‐term O 3 enhancements 35% above the normal values at 500 hPa. These results reveal the linkages between vertical O 3 variations and synoptic processes, highlighting the non‐negligible contribution of SIA to tropospheric O 3 .

Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) are brief and intense emissions of hard X-rays and gamma-rays originating inside thunderstorms. It has been observed that TGF occurs much less frequently than lightning. However, the TGF generation conditions and mechanism of are not clear, such as why just the TGF-associated lightning produces TGF while others not. Consecutive TGFs detected by space-based platform are usually several seconds to 1-2 minutes apart, and they come from same meteorological environment and even from the same storm cells. This provides a possibility to understand the relationship between lightning and TGF. Based on Fermi high-energy photons observations and the ground low-frequency (LF) lightning sferics measurements, more than 10 pairs of consecutive TGFs with synchronous LF lightning waveform are analyzed. Preliminary results show that the sferics of each TGF pairs are almost same, while they vary with different pairs. More details will be shown. In addition, some TGFs detected by ASIM and the associated lightning will also be introduced.

Artificially triggered lightning can generate a cylindrical plasma when a rocket carrying metal wire is launched into cloud. Based on the mass-energy conservation and transmission-line equation, the cylindrical plasma was numerically simulated for its parameters: current, temperature, pressure, and radius. To verify the simulated results, the strong discharge plasma for triggered lightning in Guangdong, China, was adopted. Its experimentally measured data on the current, temperature, pressure, and radius were compared with the numerical simulations. The results show that: when the experimental measurement data focus on currents by 12–24 kA, electron temperature by 24 537 K, electron density by 4.96 ×1018 cm−3, pressure by 12 atm, and radius by 15.3–25 mm, interestingly, the numerically simulated results can obtain good agreements.

As one of the payload of Tianwen-1 for space environment exploration, MINPA has been working continuously for over 4 years. We have introduced its working situation and also presented some preliminary scientific results it has obtained. We look forward to more research achievement in the future.

As China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite, the hard X-ray modulation telescope (Insight-HXMT) carries three sets of X-ray telescopes. The high energy X-ray telescope (Insight-HXMT/HE) could serve as an all-sky gamma-ray monitor with a detection area of up to 5000 cm2 and energy range from about 200 keV to 3 MeV. These characteristics, together with the high orbital inclination angle (43°) of the satellite, make the HE very suitable for detecting terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). In this work, we implemented a dedicated TGF search algorithm for Insight-HXMT/HE, and identified 282 bright TGFs in its first four years of operation. We made a systematic study on the properties of these TGFs, including trigger time, duration, intensity, as well as the lightning association. We found that TGFs detected in mid-latitude regions (30° to 43°) are rare and they do not exhibit significantly different properties compared with TGFs in low-latitude (within 30°). Interestingly, the hardness ratio of TGF measured by Insight-HXMT/HE seems to be independent of the TGF duration, which differs from previous studies. These results show that, despite the dedicated design for astronomical observation, Insight-HXMT/HE is a versatile instrument to study energetic radiation phenomena from the Earth.

The Apollo basin, situated on the northeastern edge of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, is the sampling area for the Chang'e -6 (CE-6) mission. In this study, we investigated the microwave thermophysical properties of surface deposits in the region by comparing brightness temperature (TB) and TB difference (dTB) maps derived from CE2 Microwave Radiometer data combined with topography, chemical elements, and Moon Mineralogy Mapper products. The main results are as follows. (1) High dTB anomaly: A significant high dTB anomaly is identified near the CE-6 landing region, characterized by the highest FeO and TiO2 contents estimated from the small-fresh craters; (2) Basaltic Volcanism: High dTB anomaly is proposed as a new basaltic unit in late stage of mare infill, and, by combining derived ages and geomorphology, we provide a new perspective on the basaltic volcanism with four episodes of magma infill in the CE-6 landing region; (3) Thermophysical Parameters: The high dTB anomaly indicates the potential importance of analyzing the returned CE-6 samples to enhance our understanding of the Moon's surface deposits using the passive microwave remote sensing data.