Discharge processes, electric field, and electron energy in ISUAL‐recorded gigantic jets

Kuo, Cheng-Ling; Chou, Jung-Hua; Tsai, Lin; Chen, Alfred; Su, H.; Hsu, R.; Cummer, Steven A.; Frey, H. U.; Mende, S. B.; Takahashi, Yukihiro; Lee, L. C.

doi:10.1029/2008ja013791

Cited by 80 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…3) and the unusual timescales of the ULF pulse strongly suggest that this pulse originates in current flowing in the jet itself and not in a conventional lightning process. This is consistent with satellite-based optical measurements of gigantic jets that reveal far dimmer optical emissions from the clouds than for typical large lightning flashes 11 .…”

supporting

confidence: 89%

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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: 89%

“…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: 56%

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

et al. 2009

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“…Up to now, the TLE family includes sprites (Sentman et al 1995;Lyons 1996;Winckler et al 1996;Cummer et al 2006;Yang et al 2008;Savtchenko et al 2009;Lang et al 2010;Suzuki et al 2011;Boggs et al 2016;Peng et al 2017), elves (Emissions of Light and VLF perturbation due to EMP Sources) Barrington-Leigh et al 2001;Kuo et al 2007;Wu et al 2017), halos ), blue starters, blue jets and gigantic jets (Pasko 2003;Su et al 2003;Kuo et al 2009;Chou et al 2011;Yang and Feng 2012;Liu et al 2015b). Sprites are usually produced by intense lightning discharges and are observed between about 40 -90 km altitude above thunderstorms (Sentman et al 1995;Hardman et al 2000;Neubert et al 2001;Su et al 2002;Pinto et al 2004;Cummer et al 2006; Van der Velde et al 2006;Yang et al 2008Yang et al , 2013aYang et al , 2015Lu et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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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“…The far-ultraviolet (FUV) emissions emitted by transient luminous events (TLEs) originated in the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) band of nitrogen molecule N 2 . From the ISUAL data analyses, it is known that elves Kuo et al 2007Kuo et al , 2008Chang et al 2010), halos Kuo et al 2008), sprites (Kuo et al 2005Liu and Pasko 2005;Liu et al 2006), and gigantic jets (Kuo et al , 2009Chou et al 2010) are accompanied by FUV emissions. However, blue jets without the FUV emission were also reported (Chou et al 2010) as the longer life time of the N 2 LBH band upper state results in quenching at the lower altitudes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ISUAL Imager and far-ultraviolet spectrophotometer degradation

Chang

Hsu

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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The Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) has been operated for more than ten years. The onboard spectrophotometer channel-1 (SP1) was designed to detect the far-ultraviolet (FUV) emissions (N 2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield band) from space. It was found that most of the transient luminous events (TLEs), such as sprites, halos, elves, and gigantic jets, are usually accompanied by FUV emissions. The FUV emission could be utilized as an indicator for searching TLEs because the FUV emission of lightning is severely attenuated in the atmosphere during propagation, although the TLE FUV emissions are still detectable. Furthermore, the elves FUV emission photon flux can also be used to estimate the parent lightning peak current. Therefore, SP1 sensitivity degradation assessment, which affects the observed intensity of FUV emissions, is important. Although ISUAL has a lightemitting diode (LED) which is preset as a standard light source, the emission wavelength range of the LED does not cover the FUV band. We established a method in this study to determine the ISUAL Imager and SP1 sensitivity degradation. We found that the annual degradation rates of the ISUAL Imager and the SP1 are 8.4 and 9.7%, respectively.

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Discharge processes, electric field, and electron energy in ISUAL‐recorded gigantic jets

Cited by 80 publications

References 49 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

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

ISUAL Imager and far-ultraviolet spectrophotometer degradation

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