Spectral Characteristics of VLF Sferics Associated With RHESSI TGFs.
We compared the modeled energy spectral density of very low frequency (VLF) radio emissions from terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) with the energy spectral density of VLF radio sferics recorded by Duke VLF receiver simultaneously with those TGFs. In total, six events with world wide lightning location network (WWLLN) defined locations were analyzed to exhibit a good fit between the modeled and observed energy spectral densities. In VLF range the energy spectral density of the TGF source current moment is found to be dominated by the contribution of secondary low-energy electrons and independent of the relativistic electrons which play their role in low-frequency (LF) range. Additional spectral modulation by the multiplicity of TGF peaks was found and demonstrated a good fit for two TGFs whose VLF sferics consist of two overlapping pulses each. The number of seeding pulses in TGF defines the spectral shape in VLF range, which allows to retrieve this number from VLF sferics, assuming they were radiated by TGFs. For two events it was found that the number of seeding pulses is small, of the order of 10. For the rest of the events the lower boundary of the number of seeding pulses was found to be between 10 to 103.
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- 3702 Climate change science
- 3701 Atmospheric sciences
- 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
- 0401 Atmospheric Sciences
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- 3702 Climate change science
- 3701 Atmospheric sciences
- 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
- 0401 Atmospheric Sciences