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Observations of Blue Discharges Associated With Negative Narrow Bipolar Events in Active Deep Convection
Author(s) -
Liu Feifan,
Zhu Baoyou,
Lu Gaopeng,
Qin Zilong,
Lei Jiuhou,
Peng KangMing,
Chen Alfred B.,
Huang Anjing,
Cummer Steven A.,
Chen Mingli,
Ma Ming,
Lyu Fanchao,
Zhou Helin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl076207
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , lightning (connector) , environmental science , upper atmospheric lightning , meteorology , satellite , lightning detection , atmospheric sciences , geology , physics , lightning strike , astronomy , power (physics) , quantum mechanics
On 19 August 2012, the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning on board the FORMOSAT‐2 satellite captured a sequence of seven blue discharges within 1 min that emanated from a parent thunderstorm over Lake Taihu in East China. The analysis of lightning activity produced in the thunderstorm indicates that at least six of these events occurred in association with negative narrow bipolar events (NBEs) that were concurrent with the blue discharge by less than 1 ms, and negative cloud‐to‐ground occurred within 6 s before each blue discharge, which is in agreement with the modeling presented by Krehbiel et al. (2008). Therefore, the frequent occurrence of negative cloud‐to‐ground could provide the favorable condition for the production of blue discharges, and negative NBEs are probably the initial event of blue discharges. The detection of negative NBEs might provide a convenient approach to detect the occurrence of blue discharges as lightning bolt shooting upward from the top of energetic thunderstorms.