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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 115,
A00E18,
8 PP., 2010
doi:10.1029/2009JA014508
High-speed intensified video recordings of sprites and elves over the western Mediterranean Sea during winter thunderstorms
Electrical Engineering Department, Technological University of Catalonia, Terrassa, Spain
Electrical Engineering Department, Technological University of Catalonia, Terrassa, Spain
Electrical Engineering Department, Technological University of Catalonia, Terrassa, Spain
Electrical Engineering Department, Technological University of Catalonia, Terrassa, Spain
Electrical Engineering Department, Technological University of Catalonia, Terrassa, Spain
Meteorological Service of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Valencia, Burjassot, Spain
Laboratoire d'Aérologie, UMR 5560, UPS, CNRS, OMP, Toulouse, France
We report the first intensified high-speed video images of elves, sprites, and halos observed in Europe. All the events corresponded to winter season thunderstorms over the Mediterranean Sea. The observations comprise many elves generated by both cloud-to-ground lightning current polarities. In 8 of the 14 sprite observations we observed an elve previous to the sprite. In three cases we observed also an elve quickly followed by a halo and a sprite. In several observations we observed lightning light before the mesospheric transient luminous event. We present a case where the lightning from cloud tops was visible during the entire event. Thanks to the high-speed videos and their resolution and low intensifier phosphor persistence we analyzed the timing distribution of the development phase of sprite elements, the persisting luminosity phase, and the total duration. Finally, we summarize one particular observation where a streamer collides and bounces with a previous formed column; it may be a new phenomenon of collision between an existing column body that interacts with a later streamer point-like tip which is not merged and attached.
Received 29 May 2009; accepted 16 November 2009; published 17 April 2010.
Citation: (2010), High-speed intensified video recordings of sprites and elves over the western Mediterranean Sea during winter thunderstorms, J. Geophys. Res., 115, A00E18, doi:10.1029/2009JA014508.
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