Effects of photoionization on propagation and branching of positive and negative streamers in sprites

Liu, Ningyu; Pasko, Victor P.

doi:10.1029/2003ja010064

Cited by 299 publications

(625 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(198 reference statements)

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“…After the first claim [13] that a streamer filament within this deterministic continuum model in a sufficiently high field can evolve into an unstable state where it branches spontaneously, streamer branching was observed in more simulations [14,15,16]. While the physical nature of the Laplacian instability was elaborated in simplified analytical models [13,17,18,19,20], other authors challenged the accuracy of the numerical results [21,22,23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, in many natural discharges and, in particular, for sprites above thunderclouds [15], it is appropriate to assume that the electric field is homogeneous. Of course, dust particles or other nucleation centers can play an additional role in discharge generation, but in this paper we will focus on the effect of a homogeneous field on a homogeneous gas.…”

Section: Geometry and Boundary Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the simulation of negative streamers

Montijn

Hundsdorfer

Ebert

2006

Journal of Computational Physics

104

178

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The evolution of negative streamers during electric breakdown of a non-attaching gas can be described by a two-fluid model for electrons and positive ions. It consists of continuity equations for the charged particles including drift, diffusion and reaction in the local electric field, coupled to the Poisson equation for the electric potential. The model generates field enhancement and steep propagating ionization fronts at the tip of growing ionized filaments. An adaptive grid refinement method for the simulation of these structures is presented. It uses finite volume spatial discretizations and explicit time stepping, which allows the decoupling of the grids for the continuity equations from those for the Poisson equation. Standard refinement methods in which the refinement criterion is based on local error monitors fail due to the pulled character of the streamer front that propagates into a linearly unstable state. We present a refinement method which deals with all these features. Tests on one-dimensional streamer fronts as well as on three-dimensional streamers with cylindrical symmetry (hence effectively 2D for numerical purposes) are carried out successfully. Results on fine grids are presented, they show that such an adaptive grid method is needed to capture the streamer characteristics well. This refinement strategy enables us to adequately compute negative streamers in pure gases in the parameter regime where a physical instability appears: branching streamers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Geometry and Boundary Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the simulation of negative streamers

Montijn

Hundsdorfer

Ebert

2006

Journal of Computational Physics

104

178

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“…Another important assumption of the kinetic model is related to the exclusion of photochemistry processes occurring in sprites. Some photochemical mechanisms, like photoionization, might impact the propagation and branching of sprite streamers [Liu and Pasko, 2004;Bourdon et al, 2007] but with an indirect or minor influence on the non-equilibrium chemistry of the streamer plasma.…”

Section: Model Assumptions Parameters and Initial Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vibrational kinetics of air plasmas induced by sprites

Gordillo‐Vázquez

2010

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] The vibrational kinetics of air plasmas produced by the presence of sprites in the mesosphere of the Earth is studied in detail. The present model solves the coupled electron Boltzmann equation and rate equations for electrons, neutrals (ground and excited), and ions. Special attention is paid to the vibrational kinetics of N 2 (X 1 S g + ) and to that of the N 2 triplet states (A 3 S u + , B 3 P g , C 3 P u , W 3 D u , and B′ 3 S u + ). The results presented are for an altitude of 78 km over sea level where the model-predicted vibrational distribution function (VDF) of N 2 (B 3 P g ) is in agreement with available VDF derived from sprite spectra (640-820 nm) obtained using spectrographs coupled to high-speed video cameras (300 frames per second (fps)). In addition, the model predictions indicate that the sprite plasma VDFs of N 2 (B 3 P g ) and N 2 (C 3 P u ) are almost in thermal equilibrium and exhibit a maximum at v = 0 followed by lower values for v = 1 and v = 2. Finally, it is also predicted that the N 2 (B 3 P g ) and N 2 (C 3 P u ) VDFs recorded with very high speed video cameras (up to 10000 fps) should not differ much from the N 2 (B 3 P g ) and N 2 (C 3 P u ) VDFs obtained with cameras working at lower speeds (30 and 300 fps).

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“…Sprites are thought to be produced by the QE field above the thunderstorm due to the fast removal of charges by CG flashes and their possible following continuous current (Pasko et al 1997;Liu and Pasko 2004;Liu et al 2015a). By carefully comparing the sprite occurrence time and the lightning location network data and ELF magnetic field recorded at Syowa station, it was found that the sprites occurring at 00:27 and 01:21, respectively, were produced by positive CGs with a single return stroke and the following continuous current.…”

Section: Thunderstorm Structure and Parent Flashesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sprite possibly produced by two distinct positive cloud-to-ground lightning flashes

Yang¹,

Lu²,

Liu³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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Transient luminous event (TLEs) observations have been conducted in mainland China since 2007, with a number of TLEs documented. This study analyzed a very unusual and unique positive sprite event, that may be produced jointly by two distinct positive cloud-to-ground lightning flashes (+CGs) occurring within a short time difference but with different locations separated by about 27 km. This observation is different from previous studies reporting that most of the sprites were triggered by a single +CG flash and its possible following continuous current. Detailed analysis on extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic field shows that combined charge moment change (CMC) due to the two +CGs is smaller (~1478 C km) than those of the parent CGs for the other two sprites (1582 and 2134 C km, respectively) recorded over the same thunderstorm. The vertical extension and brightness of the sprites correspond well with the CMC of their parent CGs, namely, the larger the CMC value the brighter the sprite, and the larger the CMC value the larger the vertical extension. Negative lightning flashes dominated during the thunderstorm life cycle. The three sprites occurred during a time window in which both negative and positive flashes were active. The three sprites occurred over the thunderstorm stratiform region.

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Effects of photoionization on propagation and branching of positive and negative streamers in sprites

Cited by 299 publications

References 79 publications

An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the simulation of negative streamers

An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the simulation of negative streamers

Vibrational kinetics of air plasmas induced by sprites

Sprite possibly produced by two distinct positive cloud-to-ground lightning flashes

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