Polarity asymmetry of sprite‐producing lightning: A paradox?

Williams, Earle; Downes, E.; Boldi, R.; Lyons, Walter A.; Heckman, S.

doi:10.1029/2006rs003488

Cited by 93 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(98 reference statements)

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“…The results presented in this paper shed additional light on the paradox raised by Williams et al (2007a) regarding the polarity asymmetry of sprite-producing lightning strokes. Their survey based on ground-based observations reported worldwide prior to 2005, including more than 3000 sprites documented in ground-based video imagery, indicates that the percentage of confirmative negative sprite observations is far below 1% (this ratio will increase to approximately 4% even those invalidated cases are included), which is inconsistent with the inferred proportion of negative sprites on the order of 10% from the Schumann resonance measurement (e.g., Hobara et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Lu¹,

Cummer²,

Chen³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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We examined the broadband (< 1 Hz to 30 kHz) lightning sferics associated with 395 sprites observed near North America by the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) onboard the FORMOSAT-2 satellite in a 12-year period from 2004 -2015. Our analysis indicates that the ISUAL dataset contains a significant fraction (69, or ~18%) of negative sprites, which were predominantly (> 80%) observed over oceanic and coastal thunderstorms mostly in tropical areas. The mean and median of impulse charge moment change (iCMC) associated with positive (negative) sprites are +346 C km (-709 C km) and +280 C km (-649 C km), respectively. The morphology and parent lightning properties (e.g., typically with high peak currents > -80 kA and large iCMCs > -300 C km) of negative sprites observed by the ISUAL are generally consistent with that documented in ground-based observations, but the ISUAL dataset does imply that sprites are sometimes produced by negative strokes with sub-critical iCMCs (less than -300 C km). Consequently, the future survey of global occurrence of sprites is desired to be based on complementary ground and space-borne observations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Lu¹,

Cummer²,

Chen³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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show abstract

“…Neubert et al, 2008;Pasco, 2010;Raizer et al, 2010). The polarity asymmetry of sprite-producing lightning (Boccippio et al, 1995;Lyons, 2006;Williams et al, 2007), as well as the fact that the charge moment change of the causative +CG must be greater than ∼500 C km to produce sprites (Stanley et al, 2000;, is far from being well understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Essentially for all events, the sprite generation is associated with a positive flash (Boccippio et al, 1995;Williams et al, 2007). Just after a positive CG return stroke, the uncompensated negative charge of the thundercloud results in the generation of downwarddirected electric field over the thundercloud.…”

Section: V Surkov and M Hayakawa: Underlying Mechanisms Of Transmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boccippio et al, 1995;Williams et al, 2007). The sprites and mesospheric TLEs occur infrequently since the charge moment change of the causative +CG must be more than a value of the order of 500 C km in order to initiate the sprite discharge (Stanley et al, 2000;Hiraki and Fukunishi, 2006).…”

Section: Spritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With a luminous red glow occurring at 50-90 km altitude range gradually changing to blue color below 50 km, sprites are more frequent than others in ground-based observations . Almost without exceptions, the sprites are associated with positive cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning discharges lowering positive charges from clouds to the ground (Boccippio et al, 1995;Williams et al, 2007). Some events of sprites triggered by negative CGs have been observed, and thus these observations are of great interest (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Underlying mechanisms of transient luminous events: a review

Сурков

Hayakawa

2012

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. Transient luminous events (TLEs) occasionally observed above a strong thunderstorm system have been the subject of a great deal of research during recent years. The main goal of this review is to introduce readers to recent theories of electrodynamics processes associated with TLEs. We examine the simplest versions of these theories in order to make their physics as transparent as possible. The study is begun with the conventional mechanism for air breakdown at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes. An electron impact ionization and dissociative attachment to neutrals are discussed. A streamer size and mobility of electrons as a function of altitude in the atmosphere are estimated on the basis of similarity law. An alternative mechanism of air breakdown, runaway electron mechanism, is discussed. In this section we focus on a runaway breakdown field, characteristic length to increase avalanche of runaway electrons and on the role played by fast seed electrons in generation of the runaway breakdown. An effect of thunderclouds charge distribution on initiation of blue jets and gigantic jets is examined. A model in which the blue jet is treated as upward-propagating positive leader with a streamer zone/corona on the top is discussed. Sprite models based on streamer-like mechanism of air breakdown in the presence of atmospheric conductivity are reviewed. To analyze conditions for sprite generation, thunderstorm electric field arising just after positive cloudto-ground stroke is compared with the thresholds for propagation of positively/negatively charged streamers and with runway breakdown. Our own estimate of tendril's length at the bottom of sprite is obtained to demonstrate that the runaway breakdown can trigger the streamer formation. In conclusion we discuss physical mechanisms of VLF (very low frequency) and ELF (extremely low frequency) phenomena associated with sprites.

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Energetics and geographic distribution of elve‐producing discharges

Chen

Hsu

2014

JGR Space Physics

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The major types of transient luminous events (TLEs) are believed to be directly triggered by cloud-to-ground discharges. Intense lightning generally seems to have a higher production efficiency for TLEs, but this observation has not yet been statistically investigated. Two data sets, the upgraded World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) lightning stroke data and the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) TLE data, were used to investigate the energetics and the geographic distribution of TLE-producing lightning. The global median energy of the strokes that produced the TLEs is at least an order of magnitude higher than the global median stroke energy for WWLLN lightning in the same data window. Furthermore, the energy distributions of the elve-producing strokes exhibit no oceanic and land disparity. These results reveal that the elves are indeed triggered by energetic lightning and the production efficiency of elves with respect to the stroke energy of the causative lightning was insensitive to the underlying landform. Analysis of the spatial correlation between the ISUAL elves and the WWLLN lightning reveals that the geographic distribution of the ISUAL elves agreed well with that for the most energetic 10% of the WWLLN lightning strokes, better than for total lighting. We also found that elve occurrence rates in the apparently reduced detection regions behind the Earth's limb may have been greatly underestimated, partially due to the failure in providing triggers to initiate ISUAL recording or the severity of atmospheric attenuation to the elve emissions that may have caused them to be undetected.

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Polarity asymmetry of sprite‐producing lightning: A paradox?

Cited by 93 publications

References 75 publications

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Underlying mechanisms of transient luminous events: a review

Energetics and geographic distribution of elve‐producing discharges

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