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Initial Breakdown Pulses Accompanied by VHF Pulses During Negative Cloud‐to‐Ground Lightning Flashes
Author(s) -
Kolmasova Ivana,
Marshall Thomas,
Bandara Sampath,
Karunarathne Sumedhe,
Stolzenburg Maribeth,
Karunarathne Nilmini,
Siedlecki Raymond
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl082488
Subject(s) - lightning (connector) , amplitude , electromagnetic pulse , very high frequency , physics , very low frequency , flash (photography) , waveform , broadband , pulse (music) , bandwidth (computing) , optics , electrical engineering , telecommunications , voltage , detector , power (physics) , quantum mechanics , astronomy , computer science , engineering
This study compares waveforms recorded by “broadband” very low frequency/low‐frequency/medium‐frequency (VLF/LF/MF) electric field change sensors (bandwidth ~0–2.5 MHz) and very high frequency (VHF) sensors (bandwidth 186–192 MHz) during the initiation of 20 negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning flashes. In the first 2 ms of each flash, initial breakdown (IB) pulses are detected with the VLF/LF/MF sensors. Comparison shows that all classical IB pulses are accompanied by VHF pulses, where classical IB pulses are defined herein as bipolar with duration >10 μs and amplitude >25% of the largest IB pulse amplitude in the flash. There are on average 47% of IB pulses (of all amplitudes and durations) that are accompanied by VHF pulses within ±1 μs. There are also many VHF pulses with no associated IB pulses. These observations indicate that the initial in‐cloud lightning channel extension process (es) occurs very fast and at multiple length scales, since substantial electromagnetic radiation is emitted in the VLF/LF/MF and VHF bands.