摘要：

Forecasting tropical cyclone (TC) intensity remains a challenging task, due primarily to a lack of understanding of the physical processes and mechanisms that govern TC intensity change, especially the role of convective-scale processes. Previous studies suggested that inner-core lightning activity could be an indicator of TC intensity change but their relationships vary greatly and at times appear contradictory. The importance of total lightning (cloud-to-ground and intra-cloud) for TC intensification study and forecasting applications has also been pinpointed by many studies. This talk reviews the studies on inner-core lightning and TC intensity change, then presents our latest results on this topic based on long-term total lightning records from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (TRMM satellite) measurements. Insights on the “surprisingly” negative relationship between inner-core lightning and TC intensity change are provided.