Author:
Saba Marcelo M. F.,de Paiva Amanda R.,Concollato Luke C.,Warner Tom A.,Schumann Carina
Abstract
AbstractWhy lightning sometimes has multiple discharges to ground is an unanswered question. Recently, the observation of small plasma structures on positive leaders re-ignited the search. These small plasma structures were observed as pulsing radio sources along the positive leader length and were named “needles”. Needles may be the missing link in explaining why lightning flickers with multiple discharges, but this requires further confirmation. In this work we present the first optical observations of these intriguing plasma structures. Our high-speed videos show needles blinking in slow motion in a sequential mode. We show that they are formed at unsuccessful leader branches, are as bright as the lightning leaders, and report several other optical characteristics.
Funder
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
National Science Foundation
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference17 articles.
1. Hare, B. M. et al. Needle-like structures discovered on positively charged lightning branches. Nature 568, 360–363. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1086-6 (2019).
2. Pu, Y. & Cummer, S. A. Needles and lightning leader dynamics imaged with 100–200 MHz broadband VHF interferometry. Geophys. Res. Lett. 46, 13556–13563. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085635 (2019).
3. Shao, X.-M. et al. Broadband RF interferometric mapping and polarization (BIMAP) observations of lightning discharges: Revealing new physics insights into breakdown processes. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 123, 10-326–10-340. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029096 (2018).
4. Williams, E. & Montanyá, J. A closer look at lightning. Nature 568, 319–320. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01178-7 (2019).
5. Heckman, S. Why Does a Lightning Flash have Multiple Strokes? PhD thesis submitted to Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, June (1992).
Cited by
16 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献