Characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning in warm-season thunderstorms in the Central Great Plains     

Stacy A. Fleenor  Christopher J. Biagi  Kenneth L. Cummins  E. Philip Krider  Xuan-Min Shao 《Atmospheric Research》2009,91(2-4):333-352

In July 2005, a field campaign was conducted in the Central Great Plains to obtain 60-field/s video imagery of lightning in correlation with reports from the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and broadband electric field waveforms from the Los Alamos Sferic Array (LASA). A total of 342 GPS time-stamped cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes were recorded in 17 different sessions, and 311 (91%) of these were correlated with reports from the NLDN. Only 6 of the 17 recording sessions were dominated by flashes that lowered negative charge to ground, and 11 were dominated by positive CG flashes. A total of 103 flashes recorded on video were correlated with at least one NLDN report of negative CG strokes, 204 video flashes were correlated with one or two positive stroke reports, and 4 had bipolar reports. In this paper, we will give distributions of the estimated peak current, I_p, as reported by the NLDN, of negative and positive first strokes that were recorded on video, the multiplicity of strokes that were recorded on video, and the number of ground contacts per flash that were resolved on video. 41 (40%) of the negative flashes produced just a single-stroke on video, and 62 (60%) showed two or more strokes. The observed multiplicity of negative flashes averaged 2.83, which becomes about 3.14 after correcting for the finite time-resolution of the video camera. 195 (96%) of the positive flashes produced just a single-stroke on video, and 9 (4%) showed two strokes; therefore, the observed multiplicity of positive flashes averaged 1.04. Five out of 9 (56%) of the positive subsequent strokes re-illuminated a previous channel, and 4 out of 9 (44%) created a new ground contact. Simultaneous video, LASA, and NLDN measurements also allowed us to examine the classification of NLDN reports during 3 single-cell storms (one negative and two positive). Based on the LASA waveforms, a total of 204 out of 376 (54%) NLDN reports of CG strokes were determined to be for cloud pulses. The misclassified negative reports had |I_p| values ranging from 3.8 kA to 29.7 kA, but only 58 (24%) of these had |I_p| > 10 kA, and only one misclassified positive report had I_p > 20 kA. Radar analyses showed that most of the negative and positive CG strokes that were recorded on video were produced within or near the convective cores of storms. The radar imagery also showed that single-cell storms tended to produce one polarity of CG flashes at a time, and that such storms could switch rapidly from negative to positive CG flashes when the reflectivity was near maximum. Multiple-cell storms produced both negative and positive flashes over a broad region, but each polarity tended to cluster near regions of high-reflectivity.  相似文献   

Lifetime of the thunderstorm electric energy in the global atmospheric circuit and thunderstorm energy characteristics     

E.A. Mareev  S.V. Anisimov 《Atmospheric Research》2009,91(2-4):161-164

The lifetime of electric energy in the atmosphere is introduced and investigated as is the total electric energy of the atmosphere related to the total mean rate of electric energy dissipation. This lifetime, as determined from general estimations and convenient analytical expressions, turns out to be very small – from about 10 to about 100 s, depending on the assumptions on the control parameters of principal sources in the global electric circuit. In particular the energy lifetime is less than the relaxation time of the “global condenser” and field relaxation time near the ground surface. It is explained by the high dissipative rate of the electric energy in the atmosphere, taking into account that the regions mainly contributing to the total energy and its dissipative rate are connected to the altitudes of active parts of electrified (thunderstorm) clouds in the atmosphere with exponentially increasing conductivity.  相似文献   

Study of the total lightning activity in a hailstorm   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Joan Montany  Serge Soula  Nicolau Pineda  Oscar van der Velde  Pere Clapers  Glria Sol  Joan Bech  D. Romero 《Atmospheric Research》2009,91(2-4):430-437

A thunderstorm that developed over northeastern Spain on 16 June 2006 is analyzed. This severe thunderstorm produced hailstones as large as 40 mm and had a lifetime of 3 h and 30 min. Radar cross-sections show strong vertical development with cloud echo tops reaching an altitude of 13 km. The specific characteristics of the lightning activity of this storm were: (i) a large amount (81%) of negative cloud-to-ground (−CG) flashes with very low peak currents (< 10 kA in absolute value), (ii) a very large proportion of intra-cloud (IC) flashes with an IC/CG ratio reaching about 400, (iii) a large number of “short” IC flashes (with only 1-VHF source according to SAFIR detection), (iv) a large increase of the −CG flash rate and of the CG proportion near the end of the storm. The rate of −CG flashes with a low peak current were observed to evolve similarly to the rates of IC flashes. Most of them have been assumed to be IC flashes misclassified by the Spanish Lightning Detection Network (SLDN). They have been filtered as it is usually done for misclassified +CG flashes. After this filtering, CG flash rates remained very low (< 1 min^− 1) with +CG flashes sometimes dominant. All the particular lightning activity characteristics similar to those observed in the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) campaigns support the hypothesis that this thunderstorm could have had an inverted-polarity or complex charge structure. The maximum IC flash rate (67 min^− 1) peaked 24 min before the presence of reflectivity higher than 60 dBZ. The IC activity abruptly decreased during the period when reflectivity was dramatically increasing. The time of maximum reflectivity observed by radar was consistent with the times of reported hail at the ground.  相似文献   

瓦斯抽放站防雷设计方案     

朱新民  王瑞  贺贇  李计萍  卫晋芳 《山西气象》2009,(3):27-31

瓦斯抽放站是易燃易爆场所,属于第二类防雷建筑物,瓦斯放空管是存在连续级释放源的区域,属于爆炸危险区域的0区,为一类防雷。因此我们要做好瓦斯抽放站的防雷防静电措施,确保瓦斯抽放站及煤矿生产的安全运行。本文从雷电危害人手,针对瓦斯抽放站的不同区域及雷击的几种类型,依据相关规范技术标准,对瓦斯抽放站的防雷方案进行了设计。  相似文献   

玻璃幕墙防护侧击雷的施工方法   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

邵志明 《内蒙古气象》2009,(2):47-48

主要讲述了玻璃幕墙侧击雷防护施工方法、防雷措施及玻璃幕墙防雷接地的几种形式,是在玻璃幕墙防雷施工过程中的一些认识,供参考。  相似文献   

雷电落点概率和强度预报方法初探     

罗树如  毛连海  胡新华 《气象与减灾研究》2008,31(2):65-69

雷电灾害被联合国有关部门列为最严重的十种自然灾害之一,中国国家电工委员会称其为“电子时代的一大公害”。江西是雷电灾害较严重的省份,全省年平均雷暴日为82．9d,每年因雷电灾害造成的直接经济损失达5000～8000万元,伤亡近百人。为减轻雷电灾害损失,迫切需要对雷电落点和强度作出预报。为此,文中根据雷电闪击发生的天气、物理成因,结合国内外有关研究现状,综合应用闪电、雷达、卫星以及中尺度模式、对流参数等资料,采用多参数集成方式,研制分县雷电落点概率和强度预报方法。经试报和实报,雷电有无预报的Ts评分为0．61以上,雷电强度预报均通过了α=0．05的χ^2检验。  相似文献   

一次雹暴的闪电特征和电荷结构演变研究   总被引：7，自引：4，他引：3  

郑栋  张义军  孟青  吕伟涛  易笑园 《气象学报》2010,68(2):248-263

综合利用SAFIR3000三维闪电定位系统的全闪定位资料与雷达结合对2005年5月31日发生于北京的一次冰雹过程的闪电活动和电荷结构演变特征进行了综合分析.结果表明:该雷暴的闪电活动有两次活跃期,第一个活跃期产生了降雹,降雹结束后,闪电活动突然减少,之后的活跃期产生了更多的闪电,其中一部分处于云砧区.闪电活动峰值超前降雹5 min左右,闪电活动中的地闪仅占6.16%,但正地闪占总地闪的比例达20%,且降雹前的正地闪比例较降雹后要高·降雹发生后,正地闪很少发生.降雹阶段,参与放电的主要电荷区表现为反极性结构,-40℃左右区域为参与放电的主负电荷区,-15℃左右区域为参与放电的主正电荷区,在正电荷区之下,短暂存在一个较弱的负电荷区.降雹结束后,电荷结构经历了持续的快速调整过程,在第2次闪电活跃期,参与放电的主要区域表现为正常的三极性结构,即上正-中负-下正,受西风气流的影响,此三极性结构出现倾斜.动力和微物理过程的分析表明,闪电活动和电荷结构的特征与雷暴云内的动力、微物理过程紧密相关.文中对反极性电荷结构形成的可能机理进行了讨论,并且认为,具有强烈上升气流的灾害性天气可能更易形成反三极性的电荷结构,并在下部两个电衙区的作用下产生较多的正地闪.  相似文献   

江苏省雷电分布特征分析   总被引：30，自引：13，他引：17  

冯民学  焦雪  韦海容  殷娴  吴震 《气象科学》2009,29(2):246-251

根据江苏省46a来13个地面观测站的雷暴日资料、4a的电力部门闪电定位资料以及2a的气象部门闪电定位资料,分析研究了江苏省雷电活动的时空分布特点.结果表明,江苏省雷电总的地域分布趋势是,南部比北部多,西部比东部多;丘陵低山地区多于大片的平原地区,陆上大的水体附近也是多雷区,而且江苏省的雷电多发区与经济发达区大体重叠.这些地域应是防雷的重点地区.江苏省的雷暴发生时间主要集中在3-9月,全省雷电多发时段在16-17时,但地域间因地形地貌及雷暴源地的不同,各地日平均逐时分布的差异明显.  相似文献   

The Smart Panoramic Optical Sensor Head (SPOSH)—A camera for observations of transient luminous events on planetary night sides     

J. Oberst  J. Flohrer  T. Maue  R. Schrödter  M. Buhl  A. Christou 《Planetary and Space Science》2011,59(1):1-9

We have developed a camera dedicated to imaging faint transient noctilucent phenomena, such as aurorae, electric discharges, meteors or impact flashes, on dark planetary hemispheres. The Smart Panoramic Optical Sensor Head (SPOSH) is equipped with a back-illuminated 1024×1024 CCD chip E2V 47-20 with up to 90% quantum efficiency and has a custom-made optical system of high light-gathering power with a wide field of view of 120°×120°. Images can be obtained over extended periods at high rate to make monitoring for transient events possible. To reduce the data transmission rate, only those images (or relevant portions thereof) that contain events are returned to the user. The camera has a sophisticated processing unit prepared to interface with a spacecraft system, for image processing and event detection at rates of up to 3 images per second at full resolution. While software optimized for detection of any noctilucent phenomenon can be implemented, the software is currently optimized for the detection of meteors. Over the past years, we have routinely carried out outdoor tests with 4 camera breadboard units that demonstrate that the camera has excellent radiometric performance and geometric resolution at low light levels over its large field of view. The camera has been demonstrated to capture meteors of magnitudes as faint as +6^m moving at angular speeds of 5°/s. The camera opens up new science opportunities for planetary missions.  相似文献   

Analysis of a giant lightning storm on Saturn     

G. Fischer  W.S. Kurth  M.L. Kaiser  A. Lecacheux  D.A. Gurnett 《Icarus》2007,190(2):528-544

On January 23, 2006, the Cassini/RPWS (Radio and Plasma Wave Science) instrument detected a massive outbreak of SEDs (Saturn Electrostatic Discharges). The following SED storm lasted for about one month and consisted of 71 consecutive episodes. It exceeded all other previous SED observations by Cassini as well as by the Voyagers with regard to number and rate of detected events. At the same time astronomers at the Earth as well as Cassini/ISS (Imaging Science Subsystem) detected a distinctive bright atmospheric cloud feature at a latitude of 35° South, strongly confirming the current interpretation of SEDs being the radio signatures of lightning flashes in Saturn's atmosphere. In this paper we will analyze the main physical properties of this SED storm and of a single small SED storm from 2005. The giant SED storm of 2006 had maximum burst rates of 1 SED every 2 s, its episodes lasted for 5.5 h on average, and the episode's periodicity of about 10.66 h exactly matched the period of the ISS observed cloud feature. Using the low frequency cutoff of SED episodes we determined an ionospheric electron density around ¹⁰⁴ cm⁻³ for the dawn side of Saturn.  相似文献