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Blue starters∷ Brief upward discharges from an intense Arkansas thunderstorm
Author(s) -
Wescott E. M.,
Sentman D. D.,
Heavner M. J.,
Hampton D. L.,
Osborne D. L.,
Vaughan O. H.
Publication year - 1996
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 - 10.1029/96gl01969
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , lightning (connector) , altitude (triangle) , meteorology , atmospheric sciences , radius , effects of high altitude on humans , environmental science , blue light , physics , optics , mathematics , power (physics) , geometry , computer security , quantum mechanics , computer science
This paper documents the first observations of a new stratospheric electrical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms. On the night of 30 June (UT 1 July) 1994, 30 examples of these events, which we have called “blue starters,” were observed in a 6 m 44 s interval above the very energetic Arkansas thunderstorm where blue jets were first observed. The blue starters are distinguished from blue jets by a much lower terminal altitude. They are bright and blue in color, and protrude upward from the cloud top (17–18 km) to a maximum 25.5 km (83,655 ft.) in altitude. All blue starters events were recorded from two small areas near Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas where hail 7.0 cm in diameter was falling. Comparison to cloud‐to‐ground (CG) lightning flashes revealed: 1. Blue starters were not observed to be coincident with either positive or negative CG flashes, but they do occur in the same general area as negative CG flashes; 2. Cumulative distributions of the negative CG flashes in ±5 s before and after the starter and within a radius of 50 km shows a significant reduction for about 3 s following the event in the two cells where starters and jets were observed. The energy deficit is approximately 10 9 J. It is possible that blue starters are a short‐lived streamer phenomenon.