Blue starters: Brief upward discharges from an intense Arkansas thunderstorm

被引：85

作者：

Wescott, EM ^{[1
]}

Sentman, DD ^{[1
]}

Heavner, MJ ^{[1
]}

Hampton, DL ^{[1
]}

Osborne, DL ^{[1
]}

Vaughan, OH ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] NASA,GEORGE C MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CTR,HUNTSVILLE,AL 35806

来源：

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS | 1996年 / 23卷 / 16期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1029/96GL01969

中图分类号：

P [天文学、地球科学];

学科分类号：

07 ;

摘要：

This paper documents the first observations of a new stratospheric electrical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms. On the night of 30 June (UT 1 July) 1994, 30 examples of these events, which we have called ''blue starters,'' were observed in a 6 m 44 s interval above the very energetic Arkansas thunderstorm where blue jets were first observed. The blue starters are distinguished from blue jets by a much lower terminal altitude. They are bright and blue in color, and protrude upward from the cloud top (17-18 km) to a maximum 25.5 km (83,655 ft.) in altitude. All blue starters events were recorded from two small areas near Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas where hail 7.0 cm in diameter was falling. Comparison to cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes revealed: 1. Blue starters were not observed to be coincident with either positive or negative CG flashes, but they do occur in the same general area as negative CG flashes; 2. Cumulative distributions of the negative CG flashes in +/- 5 s before and after the starter and within a radius of 50 km shows a significant reduction for about 3 s following the event in the two cells where starters and jets were observed. The energy deficit is approximately 10(9) J. It is possible that blue starters are a short-lived streamer phenomenon.

引用

页码：2153 / 2156

页数：4

共 17 条

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