Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms

Krehbiel, P. R.; Riousset, J. A.; Pasko, Victor P.; Thomas, Ronald J.; Rison, W.; Stanley, M. A.; Edens, H. E.

doi:10.1038/ngeo162

Cited by 226 publications

(476 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The source altitude cannot be distinguished from these data, however, as at these low frequencies a source in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide generates fields almost independent of source altitude 14 . The negative polarity azimuthal magnetic field pulse indicates that the source is a downward current, reflecting either downward-moving positive charge or upward-moving negative charge, in agreement with previous reports for gigantic jets 9 and also lightning modelling and observations 4 . The precise time alignment of this signature with the gigantic jet optical emissions (see Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 77%

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Quantification of the troposphere-to-ionosphere charge transfer in a gigantic jet

et al. 2009

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Gigantic jets are the clearest manifestation of direct electrical coupling between tropospheric thunderstorms and the ionosphere. They are leaders 1-3 that emerge from electrical breakdown near the top of thunderstorms 4 and extend all the way to the lower edge of the ionosphere near 90 km altitude 5 . By contrast, blue jets 6 and other related events 7,8 terminate at much lower altitudes. Gigantic jets have been observed from the ground 5,9,10 and from orbit 11 . Some seem to be consistent with an upward-propagating negative discharge of 1,000 to 2,000 C km total charge moment change 9 , but others have not been connected to distinguishable electromagnetic signatures 10 . Here we report simultaneous low-light video images and low-frequency magnetic field measurements of a gigantic jet that demonstrate the presence and dynamics of a substantial electric charge transfer between the troposphere and the ionosphere. The signatures presented here confirm the negative polarity of gigantic jets 4 and constrain the lightning processes associated with them. The observed total charge transfer from the thunderstorm to the ionosphere is 144 C for the assumed channel length of 75 km, which is comparable to the charge transfer in strong cloud-to-ground lightning strokes.At a field site near Duke University, we routinely monitor optical emissions above thunderstorms and measure <0

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supporting

confidence: 77%

“…These data provide further evidence that the gigantic jet is not linked to any cloud-to-ground lightning stroke 4,11 and that the observed slow charge transfer occurs between the cloud and the ionosphere. Figure 3 shows the relationship between the optical emissions and the instantaneous current moment extracted 15 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 50%

Quantification of the troposphere-to-ionosphere charge transfer in a gigantic jet

et al. 2009

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“…Even so, +CG flash rate was still much lower than that of Van der Velde et al [19]. Results in Soula et al [22] showed that no CGs occurred in tens of seconds before the GJ, and they suspected that the GJ was caused by intracloud lightning, in agreement with results obtained by Krehbiel et al [28], which was published in Nature. Further analysis on lightning location network data shows that 25 negative CGs occurred in 20 seconds before the GJ.…”

Section: Characteristics Of Lightning Activity In Gj-producing and Spsupporting

confidence: 80%

A gigantic jet event observed over a thunderstorm in mainland China

Yang

2012

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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Gigantic jet (GJ) is a type of large-scaled transient discharge which occurs above thunderstorms. It connects the thunderstorms and ionosphere directly. Compared with the other transient luminous events (TLEs), gigantic jet is very difficult to be seen from the ground. We report a GJ event that was clearly recorded in eastern China (storm center located at 35.6°N,119.8°E, near the Huanghai Sea) at 20:16:22 (local time) on 12 August, 2010. It is by far the furthest from the equator ground-based GJ recorded over summer thunderstorm. The top altitude of this GJ was estimated to be about 89 km. The GJ-producing storm was a multi-cell thunderstorm and the GJ event occurred in the storm developing stage, with the lowest cloud-top brightness temperature about 73°C and the maximum radar echo top around 17 km. Altitudes with reflectivity of 45 dBZ were estimated to reach 12-14 km.Different from results from other countries that positive CGs (Cloud-to-ground lightnings) dominated during a time period centered at GJ, our study shows that negative CGs dominated during a time period centered at the GJ event and during most of the storm lifetime in this study, indicating a diversity of the lightning activity in the GJ-producing storms. It is interesting that two different storms produced two types of TLEs, that is, the GJ-producing storm only produced one GJ event during its lifetime and five sprites were produced over another storm, different from the other study that sprites and GJs were usually produced by the same storm, enriched the knowledge of GJ-producing storms. In addition, the GJ event in this study is located beyond the effective coverage area (30°S-30°N) of the ISUAL instruments onboard the FORMOSAT II satellite, and results of this study could be useful for GJ studies in the future. gigantic jet, lightning, thunderstorm, sprite Citation:Yang J, Feng G L. A gigantic jet event observed over a thunderstorm in mainland China.

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“…The tweek waveforms are better resolved and suffer less attenuation at night (typically less than 0.5 dB Mm -1 as compared to 5 dB Mm -1 during day-time) due to sharper D-region electron density profiles. When detectable, higher harmonics provide useful information on propagation condition and characteristics of the lower ionosphere (Singh and Singh, 1996;Kumar et al, 2008). Barr et al (2000) have thoroughly reviewed the major results from experimental studies on sferics, including time and frequency domain methods and triangulation techniques.…”

Section: Sferics and Tweeksmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Low Frequency Electromagnetic Wave Phenomena Related to Tropospheric-Ionospheric Coupling Mechanisms

Simões¹,

Pfaff²,

Berthelier³

et al. 2011

Dynamic Coupling Between Earth’s Atmospheric and Plasma Environments

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Investigation of coupling mechanisms between the troposphere and the ionosphere requires a multidisciplinary approach involving several branches of atmospheric sciences, from meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and fulminology to aeronomy, plasma physics, and space weather. In this work, we review low frequency electromagnetic wave propagation in the Earthionosphere cavity from a troposphere-ionosphere coupling perspective. We discuss electromagnetic wave generation, propagation, and resonance phenomena, considering atmospheric, ionospheric and magnetospheric sources, from lightning and transient luminous events at low altitude to Alfven waves and particle precipitation related to solar and magnetospheric processes. We review in situ ionospheric processes as well as surface and space weather phenomena that drive troposphere-ionosphere dynamics. Effects of aerosols, water vapor distribution, thermodynamic parameters, and cloud charge separation and electrification processes on atmospheric electricity and electromagnetic waves are reviewed. We also briefly revisit ionospheric irregularities such as spread-F and explosive spread-F, sporadic-E, traveling ionospheric disturbances, Trimpi effect, and hiss and plasma turbulence. Regarding the role of the lower boundary of the cavity, we review transient surface phenomena, including seismic activity, earthquakes, volcanic processes and dust electrification. The role of surface and https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120011991 2019-03-25T00:54:44+00:00Z atmospheric gravity waves in ionospheric dynamics is also briefly addressed. We summarize analytical and numerical tools and techniques to model low frequency electromagnetic wave propagation and solving inverse problems and summarize in a final section a few challenging subjects that are important for a better understanding of tropospheric-ionospheric coupling mechanisms.

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Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms

Cited by 226 publications

References 26 publications

Quantification of the troposphere-to-ionosphere charge transfer in a gigantic jet

Quantification of the troposphere-to-ionosphere charge transfer in a gigantic jet

A gigantic jet event observed over a thunderstorm in mainland China

A Review of Low Frequency Electromagnetic Wave Phenomena Related to Tropospheric-Ionospheric Coupling Mechanisms

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