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Characterization of infrasound from lightning
Author(s) -
Assink J. D.,
Evers L. G.,
Holleman I.,
Paulssen H.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2008gl034193
Subject(s) - infrasound , thunder , thunderstorm , lightning (connector) , lightning detection , geology , meteorology , upper atmospheric lightning , environmental science , acoustics , physics , lightning strike , power (physics) , quantum mechanics
During thunderstorm activity in the Netherlands, electromagnetic and infrasonic signals are emitted due to the process of lightning and thunder. It is shown that correlating infrasound detections with results from a electromagnetic lightning detection network is successful up to distances of 50 km from the infrasound array. Infrasound recordings clearly show blastwave characteristics which can be related to cloud‐ground discharges, with a dominant frequency between 1–5 Hz. Amplitude measurements of CG discharges can partly be explained by the beam pattern of a line source with a dominant frequency of 3.9 Hz, up to a distance of 20 km. The ability to measure lightning activity with infrasound arrays has both positive and negative implications for CTBT verification purposes. As a scientific application, lightning studies can benefit from the worldwide infrasound verification system.