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Abstract Narrow bipolar events (NBEs) are impulsive and powerful intracloud discharges. Recent observations indicate that some NBEs exhibit a slanted orientation rather than strictly vertical. This paper investigates the effect of the slanted NBEs using a newly developed rebounding‐wave model. The modeling results are validated against the full‐wave Finite‐ Difference Time‐Domain method and compared with measurements for both vertical and slanted NBE cases. It is found that the inclination of the NBEs affects both the waveforms and amplitudes of the electrostatic, induction and radiation components of the electric fields at close distances (≤10 km). However, it primarily influences the amplitudes of the fields for distances beyond 50 km, where the radiation component dominates, resulting in changes of ≥30% when the slant angle exceeds 30°. The slanted rebounding‐wave model improves the agreement with respect to a purely vertical channel and can be extended to any discharge geometry at arbitrary observation distances. 

Key Points Optical, very high frequency, and low‐frequency observations are combined to analyze the transition from upward to horizontal propagation of initial in‐cloud lightning A drop in the optical blue‐to‐red ratio indicates when the dominant illumination process changes from streamers to likely stepped leader We find for in‐cloud lightning that the upward initial leader and the horizontal stepped leader could be physically different