Mechanism of generation of runaway electrons in a lightning leader

A mechanism is analyzed of the electric field enhancement in a lightning leader up to the level permitting runaway of low-energy electrons. The ionization wave propagation in the preionized domain in front of the leader makes it possible to overcome the limitation imposed on the field intensity by transversal expansion of the leader front. By means of numerical simulations, it is demonstrated that, at the final stage of formation of a new leader step, generation of an electric field is possible in the channels of the streamer zone ahead of the new step with intensity sufficient for electron runaway and, consequently, for producing the X-ray and γ-ray pulses observed in correlation with the lightning leader steps.