Blue Optical Observations of Narrow Bipolar Events by ASIM Suggest Corona Streamer Activity in Thunderstorms

Autor: Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez, Torsten Neubert, Alejandro Luque, J. Navarro-González, Dongshuai Li, Sergio Soler, Victor Reglero, F. J. Pérez-Invernón, Nikolai Østgaard, Gaopeng Lu, Anjing Huang, Olivier Chanrion, A. Malagón-Romero, Zhang Huanxin
Přispěvatelé: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), European Commission, European Research Council, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, European Space Agency
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
Soler, S, Pérez-Invernón, F J, Gordillo-Vázquez, F J, Luque, A, Li, D, Malagón-Romero, A, Neubert, T, Chanrion, O, Reglero, V, Navarro-Gonzalez, J, Lu, G, Zhang, H, Huang, A & Østgaard, N 2020, ' Blue Optical Observations of Narrow Bipolar Events by ASIM Suggest Corona Streamer Activity in Thunderstorms ', Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, vol. 125, no. 16, e2020JD032708 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD032708
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI: 10.1029/2020JD032708
Popis: While narrow bipolar events (NBEs) could be related with lightning initiation, their intrinsic physics remains in question. Here we report on optical measurements by the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station (ISS) of blue flashes associated with NBEs. They are observed in a narrow blue band centered at 337 nm, with no simultaneous activity at 777.4 nm, considered a strong lightning emission line. From radio waves measured from the ground, we find that 7 of 10 single-pulse blue events can be identified as positive NBEs. The source altitudes estimated from optical and radio signals agree and indicate that the sources of the blue flashes are located between ∼8.5 and ∼14 km, in a cloud reaching 14–15 km altitude. The observations suggest that single-pulse blue flashes are from cold ionization waves, so-called streamers, and that positive NBEs are corona discharges formed by many streamers. ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci?n (AEI) under projects ESP2017-86263-C4-4-R and PID2019-109269RB-C43 and the FEDER program. S.?S. acknowledges a PhD research contract through the project ESP2017-86263-C4-4-R. F.?J.?P.?I., A.?L., D.?L., and A.?M. were supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union H2020 programme/ERC Grant Agreement 681257. Authors S.?S., F.?J.?P.?I., F.?J.?G.?V., A.?M., and A.?L. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the ?Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa? award for the Instituto de Astrof?sica de Andaluc?a (SEV-2017-0709). ASIM is a mission of The European Space Agency (ESA). The project is funded by ESA and by national grants of Denmark, Norway, and Spain. We acknowledge VAISALA for the granted access to the GLD360 global lightning data set of great value for this work. The authors would like to thank Jiang Lingfeng of the National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, who helped preprocess related CTH data based on the data sharing proxy in Fengyun Satellite data center at https://bit.ly/2ZxNYUT. The authors would like to thank Mohd Riduan Ahamd of the Atmospheric and Lightning Research Lab, Centre for Telecommunication Research and Innovation (CeTRI), Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektronik dan Kejuruteraan Komputer, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah 7 Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia. FJPI acknowledges the sponsorship provided by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Databáze: OpenAIRE