Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Gigantic jets between a thundercloud and the ionosphere

Nature volume 423, pages 974–976 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Transient luminous events in the atmosphere, such as lighting-induced sprites1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and upwardly discharging blue jets9,10,11,12,13,14, were discovered recently in the region between thunderclouds and the ionosphere. In the conventional picture, the main components of Earth's global electric circuit15,16 include thunderstorms, the conducting ionosphere, the downward fair-weather currents and the conducting Earth. Thunderstorms serve as one of the generators that drive current upward from cloud tops to the ionosphere, where the electric potential is hundreds of kilovolts higher than Earth's surface. It has not been clear, however, whether all the important components of the global circuit have even been identified. Here we report observations of five gigantic jets that establish a direct link between a thundercloud (altitude ∼16 km) and the ionosphere at 90 km elevation. Extremely-low-frequency radio waves in four events were detected, while no cloud-to-ground lightning was observed to trigger these events. Our result indicates that the extremely-low-frequency waves were generated by negative cloud-to-ionosphere discharges, which would reduce the electrical potential between ionosphere and ground. Therefore, the conventional picture of the global electric circuit needs to be modified to include the contributions of gigantic jets and possibly sprites17,18.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Infrared cloud map near Taiwan taken by the GMS 5 satellite at 14:31 ut, 22 July 2002.
Figure 2: Selected and cropped image fields of event 1.
Figure 3: Selected and cropped image fields of event 4.
Figure 4: The H-component of ELF waves associated with the jets shown in Figs 2 and 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Franz, R. C., Nemzek, R. J. & Winckler, J. R. Television image of a large upward electrical discharge above a thunderstorm system. Science 249, 48–51 (1990)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sentman, D. D., Wescott, E. M., Osborne, D. L., Hampton, D. L. & Heavner, M. J. Preliminary results from the Sprites 94 aircraft campaign: 1. Red sprites. Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 1205–1208 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Boeck, W. L. et al. Observations of lightning in the stratosphere. J. Geophys. Res. D 100, 1465–1475 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lyons, W. A. et al. Sprite observations above the U.S. High Plains in relation to their parent thunderstorm systems. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 29641–29652 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pasko, V. P., Inan, U. S. & Bell, T. F. Sprites as luminous columns of ionization produced by quasi-electrostatic thunderstorm fields. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 649–652 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hardman, S. F. et al. Sprite observations in the Northern Territory of Australia. J. Geophys. Res. D 105, 4689–4697 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Su, H. T., Hsu, R. R., Chen, A. B., Lee, Y. J. & Lee, L. C. Observation of sprites over the Asian continent and over oceans around Taiwan. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, 101029/2001GL013737 (2002)

  8. Takahashi, Y. et al. Activities of sprites and elves in the winter season, Japan. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 65, 551–560 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lyons, W. A., Nelson, T. E., Armstrong, R. A., Pasko, V. P. & Stanley, M. A. Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorm tops. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 84, 445–454 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wescott, E. M., Sentman, D. D., Osborne, D. L., Hampton, D. L. & Heavner, M. J. Preliminary results from the Sprites 94 aircraft campaign: 2. Blue jets. Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 1209–1212 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wescott, E. M. et al. Blue starters: Brief upward discharges from an intense Arkansas thunderstorm. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 2153–2156 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Wescott, E. M., Sentman, D. D., Heavner, M. J., Hampton, D. L. & Vaughan, O. H. Blue jets: Their relationship to lightning and very large hailfall, and physical mechanisms for their production. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 60, 713–714 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wescott, E. M. et al. New evidence for the brightness and ionization of blue starters and blue jets. J. Geophys Res. A 106, 21549–21554 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Pasko, V. P., Stanley, M. A., Mathews, J. D., Inan, U. S. & Wood, T. G. Electrical discharge from a thundercloud top to the lower ionosphere. Nature 416, 152–154 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Roble, R. G. On modeling component processes in the Earth's global electric circuit. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 53, 831–847 (1991)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Rycroft, M. J., Israelsson, S. & Price, C. The global atmospheric electric circuit, solar activity and climate change. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 62, 1563–1576 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Sato, M. et al. Charge moment differences in winter of Japan and summer of the United States. Eos 83, A11C–0103 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hu, W., Cummer, S. A., Lyons, W. A. & Nelson, T. E. Lightning charge moment changes for the initiation of sprites. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, 101029/2001GL014593 (2002)

  19. Bilitza, D. International Reference Ionosphere 2000. Radio Sci. 36, 261–275 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Uman, M. A. The Lightning Discharge (Academic, Orlando, 1987)

    Google Scholar 

  21. MacGorman, D. R. & Rust, W. D. The Electrical Nature of Storms (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Landau, L. D. & Lifshitz, E. M. Fluid Mechanics, 2nd edn (Pergamon, Oxford, 1987)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Huang, E. et al. Criteria for sprites and elves based on Schumann resonance observations. J. Geophys. Res. 104, 16943–16964 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Dowden, R. L., Brundell, J. B. & Rodger, C. J. VLF lightning location by time of group arrival (TOGA) at multiple sites. J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 64, 817–830 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank R. Dowden for providing the TOGA data and for discussions. This work was supported in part by the National Space Program Office and National Science Council in Taiwan.

Author information

Author notes

  1. H. T. Su, R. R. Hsu, M. Sato and H. Fukunishi: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, 70148, Tainan, Taiwan

    H. T. Su, R. R. Hsu, A. B. Chen, Y. C. Wang, W. S. Hsiao, W. C. Lai & L. C. Lee

  2. National Space Program Office, Hsin-Chu, 30077, Taiwan

    L. C. Lee

  3. Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, 980-8578, Sendai, Japan

    M. Sato & H. Fukunishi

Authors
  1. H. T. Su
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. R. Hsu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. B. Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Y. C. Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. W. S. Hsiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. W. C. Lai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. L. C. Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. M. Sato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. H. Fukunishi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. T. Su.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Su, H., Hsu, R., Chen, A. et al. Gigantic jets between a thundercloud and the ionosphere. Nature 423, 974–976 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01759

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01759

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing