Search results for "Thunderstorm"

A 3-Year Sample of Almost 1,600 Elves Recorded Above South America by the Pierre Auger Cosmic-Ray Observatory

2020

The time and location of the 1,598 verified and reconstructed elves, used for the analysis showcased in this paper, are publicly available on the website of the Pierre Auger Observatory (https://www.auger.org/ index.php/science/data). We wish to thank the World Wide Lightning Location Network (http://wwlln.net), a collaboration among over 50 universities and institutions, for providing the lightning location data used in this paper. We acknowledge Robert Marshall for providing one of the most advanced elve simulations to the public, a key tool in understanding the elves observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The successful installation, commissioning, and operation of the Pierre Auger Ob…

On the timing between terrestrial gamma ray flashes, radio atmospherics, and optical lightning emission

2017

On 25 October 2012 the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites passed over a thunderstorm on the coast of Sri Lanka. RHESSI observed a terrestrial gamma ray flash (TGF) originating from this thunderstorm. Optical measurements of the causative lightning stroke were made by the lightning imaging sensor (LIS) on board TRMM. The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) detected the very low frequency (VLF) radio emissions from the lightning stroke. The geolocation from WWLLN, which we also assume is the TGF source location, was in the convective core of the cloud. By using new information about both RHESSI a…

Innovative technical implementation of the Schumann resonances and its influence on organisms and biological cells

2019

Over the course of time in the digital age, oscillating processes were utilized in various realizations. Life without these became hardly imaginable. Schumann resonances are electromagnetical resonances or eigenfrequencies (radio waves), which originate from the oscillation in a hollow space shell. Their average basic frequency is 7,83Hz. The above-mentioned radio waves emerge from energy discharges such as thunderstorms, lightning or solar wind within the earth's surface and the ionosphere. They exist around the globe. Various scientists have discovered a correlation to our health on the basis of studies and experiments; their absence can result in a variety of disorders from headaches to …

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, Instrument and First Results

2019

The Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) is an observatory mounted outside the Columbus module on the International Space Station. It has been operational since April 13th, 2018. It contains two instruments: The Modular X- and Gamma-ray Sensor (MXGS) and The Modular Multispectral Imaging Array (MMIA). The objective of ASIM is to monitor thunderstorms and auroras, including lightning discharges, especially discharges upwards above thunderstorms. This paper presents the instrument package and some first results.

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM): State of the Art

2014

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) mission is an ESA pay load which will be installed in the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS). ASIM is optimized to the observation and monitoring of luminescent phenomena in the upper atmosphere, the so called Transient Luminous Event (TLEs) and Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes(TGFs). Both TLEs and TGFs have been discovered recently (past two decades) and opened a new field of research in high energetic phenomena in the atmosphere. We will review the capabilities of ASIM and how it will help researchers to gain deeper knowledge of TGFs, TLEs, their inter-relationship and how they are linked to severe thunderstorms and the pheno…

High-speed intensified video recordings of sprites and elves over the western Mediterranean Sea during winter thunderstorms

2010

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 a…

Observationally Weak TGFs in the RHESSI Data

2019

Abstract Terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) are sub‐millisecond bursts of high energetic gamma radiation associated with intracloud flashes in thunderstorms. In this paper we use the simultaneity of lightning detections by World Wide Lightning Location Network to find TGFs in the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data that are too faint to be identified by standard search algorithms. A similar approach has been used in an earlier paper, but here we expand the data set to include all years of RHESSI + World Wide Lightning Location Network data and show that there is a population of observationally weak TGFs all the way down to 0.22 of the RHESSI detection thresh…

Blue Flashes as Counterparts to Narrow Bipolar Events: the Optical Signal of Shallow In-Cloud Discharges

2021

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

2017

Abstract. Ozone (O3) is an important atmospheric oxidant, a greenhouse gas, and a hazard to human health and agriculture. Here we describe airborne in situ measurements and model simulations of O3 and its precursors during tropical and extratropical field campaigns over South America and Europe, respectively. Using the measurements, net ozone formation/destruction tendencies are calculated and compared to 3-D chemistry–transport model simulations. In general, observation-based net ozone tendencies are positive in the continental boundary layer and the upper troposphere at altitudes above  ∼  6 km in both environments. On the other hand, in the marine boundary layer and the middle tropospher…

2021

Abstract. Lightning is the major cause of the natural ignition of wildfires worldwide and produces the largest wildfires in some regions. Lightning strokes produce about 5 % of forest fires in the Mediterranean Basin and are one of the most important precursors of the largest forest fires during the summer. Lightning-ignited wildfires produce significant emissions of aerosols, black carbon, and trace gases, such as CO, SO2, CH4, and O3, affecting air quality. Characterization of the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires in the Mediterranean Basin can serve to improve fire forecasting models and to upgrade the implementation of fire emissions in atmospheric model…