HR: 0800h
AN: AE31A-0155    [Abstracts]
TI: Three Dimensional Fully Electromagnetic Simulations of Sprites Including the Effects of Runaway Breakdown
AU: * Symbalisty, E M
EM: esymbalisty@cfl.rr.com
AF: Los Alamos National Lab., Group EES-2 Mail Stop F665 , Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Roussel-Dupre, R A
EM: rroussel-dupre@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Lab., Group EES-2 Mail Stop F665 , Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Triplett, L
EM: ltriplett@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Lab., Group EES-2 Mail Stop F665 , Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Gurevich, A V
AF: P. N. Lebedev Inst. of Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow, 117924 Russian Federation
AU: Zybin, K
AF: P. N. Lebedev Inst. of Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow, 117924 Russian Federation
AU: Babich, L P
AF: Russian Federal Nuclear Center, VNIIEF Mira Street, 37, Sarov, 607190 Russian Federation
AU: Kutsyk, I M
AF: Russian Federal Nuclear Center, VNIIEF Mira Street, 37, Sarov, 607190 Russian Federation
AB: In an effort to simulate the detailed spatial structure of sprites and other high-altitude discharges, a three dimensional, fully electromagnetic, hydrodynamic code has been written. The hydrodynamic equations for four species (relativistic electrons, secondary electrons, negative ions, and positive ions) are solved in time along with Maxwell's equations. Both an externally applied electric field resulting from thunderstorm processes (e.g., a temporally varying field produced by thunderstorm electrification and/or by a parent lightning discharge) and a magnetic field (i.e., the Earth's magnetic field) are included. Seed electrons produced by cosmic rays accelerate and avalanche in the external field and develop into a runaway discharge and/or a conventional streamer. In three dimensions it is possible to simulate the development of compact streamers and to investigate the effect of spatially compact and statistically random (on the time scales and spatial scales of interest) cosmic ray showers. The implications for our understanding of the small-scale structures observed in sprite-like discharges are discussed. The corresponding optical, radio, and X-ray emissions for two simulations are presented for comparison with observations.
DE: 0310 Airglow and aurora
DE: 0619 Electromagnetic theory
DE: 0639 Nonlinear electromagnetics
SC: Atmospheric and Space Electricity [AE]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting