HR: 1340h
AN: AE23A-0911 [Abstracts]
TI: The relationship between sprite luminous intensity and electrical property of parent lightning discharges using FORMOSAT-2/ISUAL data
AU: * Yoshida, A
EM: akihiro@pat.geophys.tohoku.ac.jp
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aramaki-Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Takahashi, Y
EM: yukihiro@pat.geophys.tohoku.ac.jp
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aramaki-Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Sato, M
EM: msato@pat.geophys.tohoku.ac.jp
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aramaki-Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Adachi, T
EM: tadachi@rish.kyoto-u.ac.jp
AF: Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, 611-
0011, Japan
AU: Fukunishi, H
EM: fuku@pat.geophys.tohoku.ac.jp
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aramaki-Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Kondo, S
EM: kondo@pat.geophys.tohoku.ac.jp
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aramaki-Aoba, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
AU: Hsu, R
EM: rrhsu@phys.ncku.edu.tw
AF: Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, #1 Ta-Hsueh Raod, Tainan, 701,
Taiwan
AU: Han-Tzong, S
EM: htsu@phys.ncku.edu.tw
AF: Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, #1 Ta-Hsueh Raod, Tainan, 701,
Taiwan
AU: Chen, A B
EM: alfred@phys.ncku.edu.tw
AF: Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, #1 Ta-Hsueh Raod, Tainan, 701,
Taiwan
AU: Frey, H
EM: hfrey@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley,
Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Mende, S
EM: mende@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley,
Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Lee, L
EM: loulee@narl.org.tw
AF: National Applied Research Laboratories, 3F No. 106 Sec 2 Hoping E. Rd., Taipei, 106,
Taiwan
AB:
Sprite, transient luminous phenomena induced by tropospheric lightning discharge in the mesosphere, has been
extensively investigated for almost two decades. However, due to the atmospheric absorption and scattering, it is
difficult to estimate its exact luminous intensity with ground base observation. Recently, FORMOSAT-2/ISUAL
observed many sprite optical emissions without such atmospheric effects. The data enable us to discuss their
luminosity and the parent lightning characteristics quantitatively. In this paper, we firstly report the relationships
between them based on FORMOSAT-2/ISUAL and ELF network data.
In order to estimate sprite luminosity, we use ISUAL/array photometer data. The array photometer consists of two
photometers measuring two wavelength ranges, that is, 360-470 nm (blue) and 520-750 nm (red), with sixteen
channels arrayed in vertical each. We can estimate the electron energy of sprite from the ratio between blue and
red color intensities. Some channels with sprite are contaminated by scattering emission from cloud-to–ground
and/or cloud-to-cloud lightning discharges. From contaminated data we subtract lightning emission using
lightning channel data. Then, we can estimate corrected sprite luminosity integrated temporally and spatially. In
addition, we estimate its parent lightning charge moment from ELF data.
The result of comparison between luminosity of carrot type sprite and the charge moment shows that they have
positive correlation, indicating that charge moment is one of the essential parameters that determine sprite
luminosity. We also analyzed the ratio between blue and red emissions and found that there exists also positive
correlation between the ratio and charge moment of parent lightning. This result seems consistent with quasi-
electrostatic model assuming the electric field over thunderstorm is proportional to the lightning charge moment
and that it determines sprite occurrence and its luminosity.
Furthermore, we classified sprites into three types, that is, halo, carrot, and column, and discuss their relative
luminous intensity and their relationship to the characteristics of parent lightning.
DE: 3304 Atmospheric electricity
DE: 3324 Lightning
SC: Atmospheric and Space Electricity [AE]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting