Recent Results from Studies of Electric Discharges in the Mesosphere

By T. Neubert, M. Rycroft, T. Farges, E. Blanc, O. Chanrion, E. Arnone, A. Odzimek, Neil Arnold, Carl-Fredrik Enell, E. Turunen and 15 more. 2008

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The paper reviews recent advances in studies of electric discharges in the stratosphere and mesosphere above thunderstorms, and their effects on the atmosphere. The primary focus is on the sprite discharge occurring in the mesosphere, which is the most commonly observed high altitude discharge by imaging cameras from the ground, but effects on the upper atmosphere by electromagnetic radiation from lightning are also considered. During the past few years, co-ordinated observations over Southern Europe have been made of a wide range of parameters related to sprites and their causative thunderstorms. Observations have been complemented by the modelling of processes ranging from the electric discharge to perturbations of trace gas concentrations in the upper atmosphere. Observations point to significant energy deposition by sprites in the neutral atmosphere as observed by infrasound waves detected at up to 1000 km distance, whereas elves and lightning have been shown significantly to affect ionization and heating of the lower ionosphere/mesosphere. Studies of the thunderstorm systems powering high altitude discharges show the important role of intracloud (IC) lightning in sprite generation as seen by the first simultaneous observations of IC activity, sprite activity and broadband, electromagnetic radiation in the VLF range. Simulations of sprite ignition suggest that, under certain conditions, energetic electrons in the runaway regime are generated in streamer discharges. Such electrons may be the source of X- and Gamma-rays observed in lightning, thunderstorms and the so-called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) observed from space over thunderstorm regions. Model estimates of sprite perturbations to the global atmospheric electric circuit, trace gas concentrations and atmospheric dynamics suggest significant local perturbations, and possibly significant meso-scale effects, but negligible global effects.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cd12ffe8bc81de1e86ad4f29cbe22311c7460c1a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Yoav Yosef Yair
2. C. Kuo
3. Sergey Pulinets
4. V. Pasko
5. Joseph R. Dwyer
6. S. Cummer
7. Ute Ebert
8. David M. Smith

In Geophysics

1. Dimitar Ouzounov
2. Sergey Pulinets
3. C. Kuo
4. V. Pasko
5. F. Freund
6. D. Davidenko
7. Lou‐Chuang Lee
8. J. Huba

Citations in the corpus

• Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC) Model - An Unified Concept for Earthquake Precursors Validation (2011, background): “, 1986), thunderstorm discharges (Papadopoulos et al., 1993; Neubert et al., 2008), radioactive pollution (Boyarchuk et al.”
• Recent advances in theory of transient luminous events (2010, background): “Neubert et al. [2008] estimated global NOx effects of sprites based on the approximately three sprites per minute global occurrence rate suggested by Ignaccolo et al.”
• Lightning Related Transient Luminous Events at High Altitude in the Earth’s Atmosphere: Phenomenology, Mechanisms and Effects (2012, methodology): “…extensive review articles (Boeck et al. 1998; Rodger 1999; Inan 2002; Inan et al. 2010; Lyons et al. 2003; Pasko 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010; Raizer et al. 2010; Neubert et al. 2008; Roussel-Dupre et al. 2008; Mishin and Milikh 2008; Ebert and Sentman 2008; Ebert et al. 2010; Siingh et al. 2008).”