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Emergence of sprite streamers from screening-ionization waves in the lower ionosphere

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 757–760 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Sprite discharges above thunderclouds at altitudes of 40–90 km (refs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are usually created by a strong positive cloud-to-ground lightning flash6. Sometimes these sprite discharges emerge from a visible halo5,7,8,9, and during the first stage they always propagate downwards and branch on their way5,7,9,10,11. Modelling efforts have been restricted to conditions of non-ionized air of constant density and show double-headed sprites12 or sprites starting from metal electrodes, but they do not explain why observations exclusively record sprites that propagate downwards. Here we present simulations with a numerical discharge model on a non-uniform, dynamically adapted computational grid13 to capture the wide range of emerging spatial scales, and we use realistic air and electron densities that vary with altitude. Our model shows a downward-propagating screening-ionization wave in the lower ionosphere that sharpens and collapses into a sprite streamer as it propagates farther down. Streamer velocity, diameter and length until branching agree with observations9 within measuring accuracy. We speculate that sprites generically emerge through the collapse of a wide screening-ionization wave into a sprite streamer, although this wave is only sometimes visible as a luminous halo.

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Figure 1: The simulated electron density develops from sprite halo to primary sprite streamer.
Figure 2: Optical observations show a faint halo followed by a downward-propagating bright filament.
Figure 3: The reduced electric field E/Ek and the electron density ne develop on the axis of the simulation.

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Acknowledgements

A.L. acknowledges financial support by STW-projects 06501 and 11018 of The Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). We thank E. Williams for valuable remarks and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), 1090 GB Amsterdam, PO Box 94079, The Netherlands

    Alejandro Luque & Ute Ebert

  2. Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

    Ute Ebert

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  1. Alejandro Luque
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  2. Ute Ebert
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Contributions

All simulations were carried out by A.L., based on numerical methods developed earlier by C. Montijn et al. (ref. 13) and on his own further developments21,23. The problem of sprite streamer propagation in varying air density was posed by U.E.; A.L. included the electron density variation when approaching the ionosphere, and hence effectively the halo part. Evaluations, interpretations and literature studies were carried out together.

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Correspondence to Alejandro Luque or Ute Ebert.

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Luque, A., Ebert, U. Emergence of sprite streamers from screening-ionization waves in the lower ionosphere. Nature Geosci 2, 757–760 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo662

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