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Preliminary observations of lightning radar echoes and simultaneous electric field changes
Author(s) -
Szymanski Edwin W.,
Rust W. David
Publication year - 1979
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/gl006i006p00527
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , lightning (connector) , radar , electric field , storm , echo (communications protocol) , geology , meteorology , atmospheric electricity , upper atmospheric lightning , remote sensing , environmental science , physics , lightning strike , telecommunications , computer network , power (physics) , quantum mechanics , computer science
Measurements of radar echoes from lightning discharges within intense thunderstorms in Oklahoma have been made with a 10 cm Doppler radar. Also measured was the electric field change associated with the lightning. The lightning echoes were analyzed by displaying echo intensity at a particular range versus time. Temporal comparisons could then be made with the electric field changes. Radar echoes were detected from both intracloud and cloud‐to‐ground discharges. Relatively abrupt increases in lightning radar echo intensity sometimes appeared related to the occurrence of return strokes, K‐type electric field changes, and during continuing currents. The radar antenna beam width was 0.8°, and we undoubtedly often did not receive echoes from the entire discharge process during any given lightning flash. Lightning echoes were detected at ranges of 30‐180 km and at altitudes of 0.8‐9.8 km in regions of storms with reflectivity factors of up to 58 dBz. Lightning echoes were 10‐25 dB stronger than the precipitation echo in which they occurred, and they generally were observed in regions where the precipitation echo was less than the maximum for the storm. The mean duration of the observed lightning echoes is 342 ms with a standard deviation of 270 ms. The longest spatial extent of a lightning echo that we observed was 45 km.