On the electric field at the tip of dart leaders in lightning flashes

The results obtained in this study show that as the dart leader tip passes a given point on the defunct return stroke channel the electric field increases within a fraction of a microsecond to values larger than the critical electric field necessary for the initiation of cold electron runaway in low-density air comprising the channel. These results are in support of the hypothesis that cold runaway electron breakdown may play a role in the emission of X-ray bursts by dart leaders. The calculations also show that the peak power dissipated by a typical dart leader is about 300–500 MW/m and the energy dissipated within the first 10 μs or so is about 500–600 J/m. Furthermore, the minimum resistance and the maximum radius of the core of a typical dart leader are estimated to be about 3 Ω/m and 0.003 m, respectively.     

基于TEROS的自然闪电X射线暴观测研究

本文报道了国内首个自然闪电高能辐射(Lightning Energetic Radiation, LER)多点观测结果. 基于自主研发的雷暴高能辐射观测系统(Thunderstorm Energetic Radiation Observation System, TEROS), 在2021年夏季观测期成功捕获3次自然LER事件, 结合闪电定位、低频快电场变化、回击峰值电流等其他资料, 对3次事件的高能辐射特征进行研究. 分析发现: 3次LER事件均于负地闪下行先导的最后阶段被探测到, 是典型的X射线暴, 且均具有MeV能量的单光子, 最大能量超过2.2 MeV; 伴随梯级先导出现的X射线暴持续时间为数百μs, 伴随不规则直窜先导的X射线暴持续时间为数十μs, 主要与先导发展速度有关; 相应回击峰值电流最大的1次事件具有最高的单光子能量、最大的单位面积沉积总能量和最多的爆发过程数量, 随着接近回击时刻, 该事件还表现出与电场变化一致的增强趋势, 表明先导头部电场是影响高能辐射产生的重要因素; 随到达强度降低, 高能辐射信号逐渐由束流模式向单光子模式转变, 呈现出与地球伽马射线闪类似的现象学特征, 更多乃至所有的爆发过程无法被探测到, 高能辐射可能是闪电发展过程中的普遍现象.

     

Characteristics of chaotic pulse trains generated by lightning flashes

Pulse trains of irregular pulse characteristics and erratic amplitudes are observed in lightning flashes. These are termed “chaotic pulse trains” in this study. The average width of the individual pulses of these pulse trains is in the range of a few microseconds, with the lower limit of individual measurements extending into the sub-microsecond region. The typical pulse separation lies in the range of 2–. The pulse duration shows a consistent distribution with the most probable value at 400–. Chaotic pulse trains occur most often immediately prior to subsequent strokes. However, they occur also a few milliseconds to several tens of milliseconds prior to return strokes and sometimes do not precede return strokes at all. Twenty-six percent of the total subsequent strokes recorded in this study were preceded by chaotic pulse trains. A few of these pulse trains have occurred in a sequence of several tens of millisecond intervals in between return strokes. We have also found them to occur within very intense cloud flashes. These chaotic pulse trains have features that are different from those of other known pulse trains reported in the lightning literature. Hence, they may be caused by a physical process that has not yet been identified.     

On the NOx production by laboratory electrical discharges and lightning

Different approaches are used in estimating the global production of NO_x by lightning flashes, including field measurements carried out during thunderstorm conditions, theoretical studies combining the physics and chemistry of the electrical discharges, and measurements of NO_x yield in laboratory sparks with subsequent extrapolation to lightning. In the latter procedure, laboratory data are extrapolated to lightning using the energy as the scaling quantity. Further, in these studies only the return strokes are considered assuming that contributions from other processes such as leaders, continuing currents, M components, and K processes are negligible. In this paper, we argue that the use of energy as the scaling quantity and omission of all lightning processes other than return strokes are not justified. First, a theory which can be used to evaluate the NO_x production by electrical discharges, if the current flowing in the discharge is known, is presented. The results obtained from theory are compared with the available experimental data and a reasonable agreement is found. Numerical experiments suggest that the NO_x production efficiency of electrical discharges depends not only on the energy dissipated in the discharge, but also on the shape of current waveform. Thus, the current signature, can influence extrapolation of laboratory data to lightning flashes. Second, an estimation of the NO_x yield per lightning flash is made by treating the lightning flash as a composite event consisting of several discharge processes. We show that the NO_x production takes place mainly in slow discharge processes such as leaders, M components, and continuing currents, with return strokes contributing only a small fraction of the total NO_x. The results also show that cloud flashes are as efficient as ground flashes in NO_x generation. In estimating the global NO_x production by lightning flashes the most influencing parameter is the length of the lightning discharge channel inside the cloud. For the total length of channels inside the cloud of a typical ground flash of about 45 km, we estimate that the global annual production of NO_x is about 4 Tg(N).     

Propagation effects on radiation field pulses generated by cloud lightning flashes

As the electromagnetic fields propagate over finitely conducting ground, selective attenuation of the high frequencies takes place. As a result, the signatures of broad-band electromagnetic radiation fields generated by lightning flashes change as they propagate over such ground. In addition to being a function of the electrical parameters of the ground over which the electromagnetic fields propagate, these propagation effects depend on the height of their source above ground level. This makes the propagation effects on radiation fields from cloud flashes differ from those on the radiation fields generated by return strokes in ground flashes. In this paper the propagation effects on radiation field pulses of cloud flashes are illustrated and it is shown that these effects are not as severe as those of return strokes in ground flashes.     

The modelling of positive return strokes in lightning flashes

A simple model is introduced to represent positive return strokes so that the electromagnetic field environment created by them at different distances and at ionospheric heights can be calculated. The model parameters were selected in such a way that they can be directly connected to the observed features of the electromagnetic fields. This removed the guess work that is sometimes necessary in attributing values to the parameters of models. The model is then used to evaluate the electromagnetic fields created by positive return strokes at locations, such as in the immediate vicinity of the lightning flash and in the ionosphere, where it is difficult to perform field measurements.     

地闪先导放电三维数值模拟

为探索地闪先导放电规律以满足新型雷电防护理论与技术研究的需要,在Amoruso和Lattarulo提出的带电圆盘雷云荷电解析模型框架下,利用三维WZ模型构造了地闪先导放电数值模拟算法,第一次实现了50 m空间分辨率的地闪先导放电三维数值模拟.在解析模型框架下,求解空间大幅缩小,使高分辨率模拟成为可能.模拟过程中采用了SOR法求解七点差分格式的拉普拉斯方程,提出了双概率指数建模思想,对WZ模型进行了修正,反映了真实先导主通道的延伸性与丰富分岔的分形特征.进行了不同发展阈值下的模拟实验,得到了精细的地闪双向先导三维放电图样与先导激励下的地面电场分布,结果在一般观测范围内.     

Propagation effects on the electric field time derivatives generated by return strokes in lightning flashes

The effects of propagation over finitely conducting ground on the features of radiation component of the electric field time derivatives are investigated. The results show that the peak, the half-width and the risetime of the electric field time derivative change significantly in propagating over finitely conducting ground. Furthermore, any correlation that may exist between various parameters could also change significantly due to propagation effects. Consequently, in return stroke model validations using experimentally measured fields, remote sensing of return stroke current time derivatives using measured electric field time derivatives and in the calculation of induced voltages generated by lightning flashes in electrical installations the distortions caused by propagation effects on the electric field time derivatives cannot be neglected.     

Numerical simulations of the bi-level and branched structure of intracloud lightning flashes

Intracloud (IC) lightning is used to mean those lightning flashes which channels do not strike the ground. It is an important scientific problem to inves-tigate the IC flash features and the discharge physics.Measurements from the electric field change arrange-ment[1,2] and VHF radiation events[3,4] have provided ample evidence that IC flashes have branches with substantial horizontal extents. The VHF interferomet-662 Science in China: Series D Earth Sciences ric observations[5] also s…     

Comparison of time delays of sprites induced by winter lightning flashes in the Japan Sea with those in the Pacific Ocean

The measurement of unusual winter sprites in the Hokuriku area (Japan Sea side) was performed as a primary target of the 2006/2007 winter campaign by means of coordinated optical and extremely low frequency (ELF)/very high-frequency (VHF) electromagnetic observations. We have also added the same observations for the sprites in the Pacific Ocean, to be compared with the characteristics of Hokuriku sprites. The following results have emerged from this campaign: (i) the predominance of column sprites in winter has been confirmed not only for the Hokuriku area but also in the Pacific Ocean (with the probability just above 60%), (ii) carrots are much more frequently observed in the Pacific Ocean (with a probability of ～28%) than in the Hokuriku area (～16%), (iii) a very unique property of Hokuriku sprites is the surprisingly long delay (average ～90 ms) of sprites from their parent lightning flashes and the delays for carrots and columns exhibit some significant difference (80 ms for columns and 100 ms for carrots) and (iv) the time delay of Pacific Ocean sprites is much shorter (～43 ms average) than that at Hokuriku, but there is no remarkable difference in delay between carrots and columns. Finally we discussed the importance of time delay studies to understand sprite generations and their parent lightning discharges, because the difference of time delays on the Japan Sea side and in the Pacific Ocean are thought to be causally related to the parameters of parent thunderstorms.     

Thunderstorm days,thunderstorm duration and the number of lightning flashes in Czechoslovakia and in Finland

Zusammenfassung In dem Artikel werden die Gleichungen zwischen der Anzahl von Gewittertagen, der Gewitterdauer und der Anzahl von Blitzentladungen abgeleitet, die durch den CIGRE-Blitzzähler in 13 Stationen in der SSR und 6 Stationen in Finnland während einer 4-jährigen ununterbrochenen Beobachtungspheriode registriert wurden. Es wurde festgestellt, dass die die Beziehungen zwischen der Anzahl von Gewittertagen und der Anzahl von Blitzentladungen und zwischen der Gewitterdauer und der Anzahl von Blitzentladungen nichtlinear sind. Die Nichtlinearität zwischen den Jahressummen ist höher als die Nichtlinearität zwischen den Monatssummen einzelner Parameter.     

Estimate of NOX production in the lightning channel based on three-dimensional lightning locating system

Based on the VHF lightning locating system,a three-dimensional-space cell-gridded approach is used to extract the lighting channel and calculate the length of the channel.Through clustering of the located radiation sources and then extracting the lightning channel,it can accurately obtain the length of the channel.To validate the feasibility of the approach,a simulation experiment is designed,and it shows the length error is no more than 10%.The relationship between the NO production of per unit arc length and atmospheric pressure obtained in laboratory is applied to the NOX production of per unit flash length at different altitudes in this paper.The channel length and the NOX production of 11 negative cloud-to-ground flashes and 59 intracloud flashes in an isolated thunderstorm in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are calculated.The results show that the average channel lengths of per cloud-to-ground and intracloud flash are 28.9 and 22.3 km respectively;the average NOX productions of per cloud-to-ground and intracloud flash are 1.89×1025 and 0.42×1025 molecules,respectively.     

Time resolved simulation of lightning by lip

In this letter, we report results of time resolved spectra of lightning simulation in air by laser-induced plasma (LIP). The measured electron temperatures varied from (1.7 +/- 0.1)X10(4) K at 600 ns to (1.2 +/- 0.1)X10(4)K at 4 microseconds after the ignition of the plasma. Electron densities in the plasma varied from (7.0 +/- 1.4)X10(17)/cm3 to (9.0 +/- 1.8)X10(16)/cm3 for the above times. We also present, for the first time, a comparison of state variables for LIP and natural lightning. We find that immediately following the ignition both natural lightning and LIP reach temperatures in excess of 16,000K and relax to ambient pressure with different rates. They are expected to approach 2000 - 4000 K temperature range, which is important to chemical synthesis, in an asymptotically similar fashion.     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of positive cloud-to-ground lightning discharges and bidirectional leader of the lightning

The negative CG lightning discharges neutralizing negative charges in cloud usually dominate for most of thunderstorms. However, a lot of positive CG light-ning discharges often occur in the disappearing stage of thunderstorms, in the stratiform region of mesoscale convective systems and some supercells producing hail and tornado. Because the positive CG lightning discharges produce larger current of the return stroke and neutralize more charges due to the continuing currents with longer las…     

静止卫星闪电探测中云影响研究

相对已经在轨运行的极轨卫星,搭载在静止卫星上的闪电成像仪能够提供全天候、无间断的闪电探测,是目前全球卫星闪电探测的方向.本文分析云不同特性对云顶闪电信号的影响,以及云高对静止卫星闪电定位的订正分析,将对静止卫星闪电成像仪的研发及其业务化运行提供技术支撑.研究中,通过建立云中闪电传输模型,模拟云中闪电传输.由于云粒子散射,云的体积、光学厚度和形状,以及闪电在云中发生的深度,都影响云中或云间闪电信号传输到云顶的能量衰减和持续时间,其持续时间可能超过已知静止卫星闪电成像仪假设的2 ms成像积分时间间隔,这样不能保证所有的闪电信号在一帧图像内探测到.但是,云粒子散射对云顶闪电的水平位置影响不大,闪电成像仪定位的云顶闪电可代表云中或云间的闪电位置.同时,在传统静止卫星图像定位模型的基础上,建立了闪电定位的云高订正模型.根据该模型,当云顶高度为10 km,云高所引起的闪电定位最大误差达到经向0.5379°、纬向0.2273°,超过已知静止卫星闪电成像仪假设的地面探测单元大小,有必要进行订正.     

Characteristics of Japanese winter sprites and their parent lightning as estimated by VHF lightning and ELF transients

Sprites are newly discovered optical emissions in the mesosphere over large thunderstorms. This paper is the observational summary of winter sprites in the Hokuriku area of Japan and their parent lightning in the winter of 2004/2005, by using the coordinated optical and electromagnetic (VHF and ELF) measurements in Japan. As the results of optical observations at two stations, we have found that this campaign has yielded a variety of sprite shapes; V-angle shaped structures have been often observed (25%) in addition to columnar structures familiar for us. All of the sprite events are found to be associated with $+$CG lightning, as seen from the macroscopic information by ELF data at Moshiri. However, examining the microscopic properties of parent lightning as seen from the VHF SAFIR lightning detection network, has suggested very complicated characteristics of parent lightning discharges inducing sprites, as compared with the ELF data. One half of the sprite events are also found to be associated with $+$CG by the SAFIR observation, but another half has yielded rather new results as compared with earlier results. Four events are definitely associated with $-$CG and the remaining three events, inter-cloud flashes. The overall picture for Japanese winter sprites and their parent lightning discharges, is significantly different from that for the summer-time, continental sprites. This is indicative of complexity of winter lightning in the Hokuriku area of Japan and this would provide new information on the sprite generation mechanism.     

On the production of traveling ionospheric disturbances by atmospheric gravity waves

This paper deals with how atmospheric gravity waves produce the traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) that are observed by ionosondes. It is shown that, rather than directly producing variations of ionospheric height, a likely mechanism involves changes in ionization density by gradients in the horizontal atmospheric gravity wave air motion. These density changes can be observed as variations of the height of an ionospheric isodensity surface (the usual way of measuring TIDs). This mechanism involving enhancement/depletion of ionospheric density requires quite moderate atmospheric gravity wave air motion speeds, and works well at almost all latitudes.