DEMETER satellite observations of lightning-induced electron precipitation

U. S Inan (1) , D. Piddyachiy (1) , W. B Peter (1) , J. A Sauvaud (2) , Michel Parrot (3)

1 STAR Lab - Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience Laboratory
2 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
3 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement

DEMETER spacecraft detects short bursts of lightninginduced electron precipitation (LEP) simultaneously with newly-injected upgoing whistlers, and sometimes also with once-reflected (from conjugate hemisphere) whistlers. For the first time causative lightning discharges are definitively geo-located for some LEP bursts aboard a satellite. The LEP bursts occur within <1 s of the causative lightning and consist of 100-300 keV electrons. First in-situ observations of large regions of enhanced background precipitation are presented. The regions are apparently produced and maintained by high rate of lightning within a localized thunderstorm.

Keywords: Inan; U. S.; D. Piddyachiy; W. B

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

U. S Inan, D. Piddyachiy, W. B Peter, J. A Sauvaud, Michel Parrot. DEMETER satellite observations of lightning-induced electron precipitation. Geophysical Research Letters, 2007, 34 (7), ⟨10.1029/2006GL029238⟩. ⟨insu-03037421⟩