"Sprites, Elves and Intense Lightning Discharges"

Author: Martin Füllekrug

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-05-27

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1402046294

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Particularly intense lightning discharges can produce transient luminous events above thunderclouds, termed sprites, elves and jets. These short lived optical emissions in the mesosphere can reach from the tops of thunderclouds up to the ionosphere; they provide direct evidence of coupling from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere. Sprites are arguably the most dramatic recent discovery in solar-terrestrial physics. Shortly after the first ground based video recordings of sprites, observations on board the Space Shuttle detected sprites and elves occurring all around the world. These reports led to detailed sprite observations in North America, South America, Australia, Japan, and Europe. Subsequently, sprites were detected from other space platforms such as the International Space Station and the ROCSAT satellite. During the past 15 years, more than 200 contributions on sprites have been published in the scientific literature to document this rapidly evolving new research area.

Handbook of Atmospheric Electrodynamics

Handbook of Atmospheric Electrodynamics PDF

Author: Hans Volland

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 1995-04-27

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9780849386473

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The participation of such diverse scientific and technical disciplines as meteorology, astronomy, atmospheric electricity, ionospheric and magnetospheric physics, electromagnetic wave propagation, and radio techniques in the research of atmospherics means that results are published in scientific papers widely spread throughout the literature. This Handbook collects the latest knowledge on atmospherics and presents it in two volumes. Each chapter is written by an expert in his or her field. Topics include the physics of thunderclouds, thunder, global atmospheric electric currents, biological aspects of sferics, and various space techniques for detecting lightning within our own atmosphere as well as in the atmospheres of other planets. Up-to-date applications and methodology are detailed. Volumes I and II offer a comprehensive discussion that together will serve as an important resource for practitioners, professionals, and students alike.

The Distribution of Thunderstorm Days, Lightning Discharges, and the Incidence of Lightning Discharge Derived from VLF Sferics Data

The Distribution of Thunderstorm Days, Lightning Discharges, and the Incidence of Lightning Discharge Derived from VLF Sferics Data PDF

Author: William B. Freeman

Publisher:

Published: 1977

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13:

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Distributions were developed for 1972 in the Eastern Hemisphere of thunderstorm days (January, April, July, and October), the incidence of lightning discharge (January and April), and the areal concentration of lightning discharge (yearly). These analyses were based on a review of sferics data. Charts of thunderstorm days differed significantly from mean charts of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), especially over the oceans, North Africa, Arabia, the Mediterranean Sea, and Southeast China. These areas of sparse data in the WMO compilation have been covered in this investigation. The tentative, first estimate of the distribution of lightning discharges over a large area of Earth differed significantly from the distribution of thunderstorm days for April and July, but the two distributions were similar for January and October. Centers of relatively high occurrence of lightning discharge on a yearly basis were located over South Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Arabia, Southeast China, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The occurrence of lightning discharge was shown to follow Sun northward from January to the maximum poleward thrust in July. The occurrence of lightning discharge receded equatorward from July to the end of fall in December. The most reliable planetary-scale estimate of the average incidence of lightning discharge was 0.000042 per km per sec for the Northern Hemisphere (0-179E) in January 1972 and 0.000030 per km per sec for April 1972.

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