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How do winter thundercloud systems generate sprite‐inducing lightning in the Hokuriku area of Japan?
Author(s) -
Suzuki Tomoyuki,
Hayakawa Masashi,
Matsudo Yu,
Michimoto Koichiro
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gl025433
Subject(s) - sprite (computer graphics) , thunderstorm , upper atmospheric lightning , meteorology , geology , radar , electric field , atmospheric electricity , atmospheric sciences , geophysics , lightning strike , environmental science , physics , aerospace engineering , computer science , engineering , quantum mechanics , computer vision
Lightning and thundercloud systems leading to the generation of sprites were examined on the basis of analyses on the interrelation among radar reflectivity, lightning, and static electric field during the winter of 2004/2005 in the Hokuriku area of Japan. Eleven cases from the observed fifteen sprite events exhibit similar characteristics, so we present a typical case study of the thundercloud system. The analysis results are summarized as follows: (1) The sprite‐inducing +CG was triggered by a cloud flash produced by an active cell. (2) The sprite‐inducing +CG removed large positive charge from the stratiform region of another thunderstorm cell by the long linear lightning channel. (3) The origin of sprite‐inducing large positive charge appears to be located in the stratiform region.