The electric discharge that initiates each return stroke in a cloud- to-ground lightning discharge. It is a channel of high ionization that propagates through the air by virtue of the electric breakdown at its front produced by the charge it lowers. The stepped leader initiates the first stroke in a cloud-to-ground flash and establishes the channel for most subsequent strokes of a lightning discharge. The dart leader initiates most subsequent strokes. Dart-stepped leaders begin as dart leaders and end as stepped leaders. The initiating processes in cloud discharges are sometimes also called leaders but their properties are not well measured.