Characteristics of sprite-producing positive cloud-to-ground lightning during the 19 July 2000 STEPS mesoscale convective systems

During the summer of 2000, the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) program deployed a three-dimensional Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) near Goodland, Kansas. Video confirmation of sprites triggered by lightning within storms traversing the LMA domain were coordinated with extremely low frequency (ELF) transient measurements in Rhode Island and North Carolina. Two techniques of estimating changes in vertical charge moment (Mq) yielded averages of ∼800 and ∼950 C km for 13 sprite-parent positive polarity cloud-to-ground strokes (+CGs). Analyses of the LMA's very high frequency (VHF) lightning emissions within the two mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) show that +CGs did not produce sprites until the centroid of the maximum density of lightning radiation emissions dropped from the upper part of the storm (7-11.5 km AGL) to much lower altitudes (2-5 km AGL). The average height of charge removal (Zq) from 15 sprite-parent +CGs during the late mature phase of one MCS was 4.1 km AGL. Thus, the total charges lowered by sprite-parent +CGs were on the order of 200 C. The regional 0°C isotherm was located at about 4.0 km AGL. This suggests a possible linkage between sprite-parent CGs and melting-layer/brightband charge production mechanisms in MCS stratiform precipitation regions. These cases are supportive of the conceptual MCS sprite-production models previously proposed by two of the authors (Lyons and Williams).

Duke Scholars

Author Steven A. Cummer Electrical and Computer Engineering