HR: 16:30h
AN: AE14A-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Link Between Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes and Intracloud Lightning
AU: * Stanley, M A
EM: stanleym@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Shao, X
EM: xshao@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Harlin, J
EM: harlin@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Stock, M
EM: mstock@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Pongratz, M
EM: mpongratz@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Regan, A
EM: aregan@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, ISR-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Smith, D M
EM: dsmith@scipp.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz, Physics Department, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AU: Lopez, L I
EM: astrolili@gmail.com
AF: San Francisco State University, Physics Department, San Francisco, CA 94132 United States
AB: A total of 67 terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) were observed by the RHESSI satellite for the time period of April, 2004 thru June, 2005 and August 21 thru September 2, 2005 in the western hemisphere region between -140 and -20 degrees longitude. Of those TGFs, nine were detected by one or more stations of the Los Alamos Sferic Array (LASA). Most of these were detected at long range, but three cases on May 13, 2004, June 18, 2004, and August 22, 2005 were sufficiently close that we could discern whether the associated sferic was produced by an intracloud or a cloud-to-ground discharge. In all such cases, a positive-polarity intracloud discharge was clearly implicated in the sferic waveform. Furthermore, we were able to obtain a source altitude of 14+/-2 km for the June 18 TGF using ionospheric reflections detected at four LASA stations. The event occurred below the overshooting top of a strong thunderstorm which likely reached up to about 17 km altitude at the time of the TGF based on the altitude of negative narrow bipolar events. We will discuss the implications of a relationship between high altitude intracloud lightning and TGFs and will also show additional results.
DE: 3304 Atmospheric electricity
DE: 3324 Lightning
DE: 6934 Ionospheric propagation (0689, 2487, 3285, 4275, 4455)
DE: 6964 Radio wave propagation
DE: 7554 X-rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos
SC: Atmospheric and Space Electricity [AE]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005