Assigning the causative lightning to the whistlers observed on satellites

Abstract

Abstract.We study the penetration of lightning induced whistler waves through the ionosphere by investigating the correspondence between the whistlers observed on the DEMETER and MAGION-5 satellites and the lightning discharges detected by the European lightning detection network EUCLID. We compute all the possible differences between the times when the whistlers were observed on the satellite and times when the lightning discharges were detected. We show that the occurrence histogram for these time differences exhibits a distinct peak for a particular characteristic time, corresponding to the sum of the propagation time and a possible small time shift between the absolute time assigned to the wave record and the clock of the lightning detection network. Knowing this characteristic time, we can search in the EUCLID database for locations, currents, and polarities of causative lightning discharges corresponding to the individual whistlers. We demonstrate that the area in the ionosphere through which the electromagnetic energy induced by a lightning discharge enters into the magnetosphere as whistler mode waves is up to several thousands of kilometres wide.

Study of Dispersion of Lightning Whistlers Observed by Akebono Satellite in the Earth's Plasmasphere

“…In the plasmasphere, a lightning strike is converted into a whistling tone; therefore, this type of wave is called a "whistler mode wave" [3]. It is well known that whistler mode waves tend to propagate along magnetic field lines from the southern to the northern hemisphere, or vice-versa [5], [6], and the propagation velocity of whistler mode waves becomes slower in the lower frequency range.…”

“…In the satellite era, lightning whistlers are commonly observed from spacecraft because they can be more frequently observed from space than from the ground [3], [9]. Such lightning whistlers are categorized as nonducted whistlers, and their energy can propagate thousands of kilometers from the source of the lightning strike in the plasmasphere [9], [10].…”

“…a) E-mail: kasahara@is.t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp DOI: 10.1587/transcom.E95.B.3472 tromagnetic waves that originate from lightning strikes and propagate through the Earth's plasmasphere at audio frequencies [3]- [5]. In the plasmasphere, a lightning strike is converted into a whistling tone; therefore, this type of wave is called a "whistler mode wave" [3].…”

Whistlers detected and analyzed by Automatic Whistler Detector (AWD) at low latitude Indian stations

“…Whistlers explain wave propagation and related properties of VLF waves having right hand polarization and wave frequency smaller than the electron gyrofrequency and electron plasma frequency (Helliwell, 1965, Sazhin et al, 1992. These waves have been received both on the Earth's surface (Walker, 1976;Collier et al, 2006) as well as onboard satellites (Chum et al, 2006).…”

“…Using the AWD system operating in Dunedin, New Zealand, Rodger et al (2009) reported that Dunedin whistler rates are hundreds of times higher than estimated from the conjugate lightning activity. Chum et al (2006) have studied the penetration of lightning induced whistler waves through the ionosphere by 4 investigating the correspondence between the whistlers observed on the DEMETER and MAGION-5 satellites and the lightning discharges detected by the European lightning detection network EUCLID. They demonstrated that the area in the ionosphere through which the electromagnetic energy induced by a lightning discharge enters the magnetosphere is up to several thousand kilometers wide.…”