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Electron acceleration above thunderclouds

Martin Füllekrug 1 Ivana Kolmasova 2 Ondrej Santolik 3 Thomas Farges 4 József Bór 5 Alec Bennett 6 Michel Parrot 7 William Rison 8 Ferruccio Zanotti 9 Enrico Arnone 9 Andrew Mezentsev 1 Radek Lan 10 Ludek Uhlir 2 Giles Harrison 11 Serge Soula 12 Oscar van der Velde 13 Jean-Louis Pinçon 7 Christiane Helling 14 Declan Diver 15
1 Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering [Bath]
2 IAP - Institute of Atmospheric Physics [Prague]
3 Faculty of Mathematics and Physics [Praha/Prague]
4 DAM/DIF - DAM Île-de-France
5 Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences [Budapest]
6 Bristol Industrial and Research Associates Ltd, Portishead, Bristol, UK
7 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement
8 NMT - New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology [New Mexico Tech]
9 Italian Meteor and TLE Network, Ferrara, Italy
10 LGCGM - Laboratoire de Génie Civil et Génie Mécanique
11 Department of Meteorology [Reading]
12 LA - Laboratoire d'aérologie
13 Electrical Engineering Departement
14 SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
15 SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy [Glasgow]
Abstract : The acceleration of electrons results in observable electromagnetic waves which can be used for remote sensing. Here, we make use of ∼4 Hz–66 MHz radio waves emitted by two consecutive intense positive lightning discharges to investigate their impact on the atmosphere above a thundercloud. It is found that the first positive lightning discharge initiates a sprite where electrons are accelerated during the exponential growth and branching of the sprite streamers. This preconditioned plasma above the thundercloud is subsequently exposed to a second positive lightning discharge associated with a bouncing-wave discharge. This discharge process causes a re-brightening of the existing sprite streamers above the thundercloud and initiates a subsequent relativistic electron beam.
Keywords : atmospheric electricity lightning electromagnetic wave propagation storms
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Martin Füllekrug, Ivana Kolmasova, Ondrej Santolik, Thomas Farges, József Bór, et al.. Electron acceleration above thunderclouds. Environmental Research Letters, IOP Publishing, 2013, 8 (3), pp.035027. ⟨10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035027⟩. ⟨insu-01288052⟩

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