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Altitude, thickness and charge concentration of charged regions of four thunderstorms during trip 1981 based upon in situ balloon electric field measurements
Author(s) -
Byrne G. J.,
Few A. A.,
Weber M. E.
Publication year - 1983
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/gl010i001p00039
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , electric field , altitude (triangle) , lightning (connector) , atmospheric sciences , atmospheric electricity , charge (physics) , meteorology , environmental science , physics , geometry , power (physics) , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Balloon borne corona probes designed to measure vertical electric fields have yielded data on the vertical electric structure of four thunderstorms studied during the Thunderstorm Research International Program (TRIP), 1981. All four thunderclouds exhibited a bipolar charge structure with an upper positive charge region and a lower negative charge region. The negative region was consistently centered between the 0° C and −10° C isotherm altitudes. The altitudes of the concentrated positive regions varied considerably. The average vertical extent of the negative regions was 1 km with estimated average charge concentrations ranging from −.7 nC/m³ to −1.8 nC/m³. The average thickness of the positive regions was 1.5 km with estimated charge concentrations averaging .5 nC/M³ to 1.7 nC/m³.