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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • VLF network
  • runaway breakdown
  • lightning initial stage

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Processes: Lightning
  • Atmospheric Processes: Atmospheric electricity
  • Atmospheric Processes: Instruments and techniques

Abstract

Detection of in-cloud lightning with VLF/LF and VHF networks for studies of the initial discharge phase

H.-D. Betz

Physics Department, University of Munich, Garching, Germany

T. C. Marshall

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

M. Stolzenburg

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

K. Schmidt

Physics Department, University of Munich, Garching, Germany

Nowcast GmbH, Munich, Germany

W. P. Oettinger

Nowcast GmbH, Munich, Germany

E. Defer

LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris, France

J. Konarski

Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, Warsaw, Poland

P. Laroche

ONERA, Chatillon, France

F. Dombai

Hungarian Meteorological Service, Hungary

Lightning initiation and the associated in-cloud parts of lightning flashes have been studied by comparing thunderstorm data from two independent networks, LINET and SAFIR-type systems, operating in the VLF/LF and VHF regime, respectively. The two networks respond to radiation pulses with different length scales; an event detected by VLF/LF must be hundreds of meters long. In all 12 storms studied, up to half of the first in-cloud events detected with the VHF networks were found to be closely time-correlated with the first VLF/LF signal. Range-normalized VLF/LF signal amplitudes of the time-coincident events (TCEs) are comparable to amplitudes of weak cloud-to-ground strokes. Without measured preparatory VHF emission activity, initial breakdown in TCEs seems to start directly with a strong discharge step producing signatures in VLF/LF records. The TCE data are consistent with lightning initiation via a runaway breakdown mechanism that extended over hundreds of meters.

Received 26 August 2008; accepted 15 October 2008; published 2 December 2008.

Citation: Betz, H.-D., T. C. Marshall, M. Stolzenburg, K. Schmidt, W. P. Oettinger, E. Defer, J. Konarski, P. Laroche, and F. Dombai (2008), Detection of in-cloud lightning with VLF/LF and VHF networks for studies of the initial discharge phase, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L23802, doi:10.1029/2008GL035820.

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