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Electrical discharge from a thundercloud top to the lower ionosphere

Nature volume 416, pages 152–154 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

For over a century, numerous undocumented reports have appeared about unusual large-scale luminous phenomena above thunderclouds1,2,3,4,5,6 and, more than 80 years ago, it was suggested that an electrical discharge could bridge the gap between a thundercloud and the upper atmosphere7,8. Since then, two classes of vertically extensive optical flashes above thunderclouds have been identified—sprites9,10,11 and blue jets12,13,14. Sprites initiate near the base of the ionosphere, develop very rapidly downwards at speeds which can exceed 107 m s-1 (ref. 15), and assume many different geometrical forms16,17,18,19. In contrast, blue jets develop upwards from cloud tops at speeds of the order of 105 m s-1 and are characterized by a blue conical shape12,13,14. But no experimental data related to sprites or blue jets have been reported which conclusively indicate that they establish a direct path of electrical contact between a thundercloud and the lower ionosphere. Here we report a video recording of a blue jet propagating upwards from a thundercloud to an altitude of about 70 km, taken at the Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico. Above an altitude of 42 km—normally the upper limit for blue jets and the lower terminal altitude for sprites—the flash exhibited some features normally observed in sprites. As we observed this phenomenon above a relatively small thunderstorm cell, we speculate that it may be common and therefore represent an unaccounted for component of the global electric circuit.

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Figure 1: GOES-8 infrared image.
Figure 2: The time dynamics of the reported luminous event.

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Acknowledgements

The GEN III intensifier was provided by ITT Night Vision Industries; we thank M. Robinson for support of our work. We thank W. Lyons for discussions, and S. Gonzalez, Q. Zhou, M. Sulzer, C. Tepley, J. Friedman, E. Robles, A. Venkataraman and E. Castro for support of our observations at Arecibo Observatory. The Arecibo Observatory is a component of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This work was supported by a Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to Pennsylvania State University. Stanford participation was also supported by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Mark A. Stanley

    Present address: Space and Atmospheric Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87545, USA

  2. Victor P. Pasko, Mark A. Stanley, Umran S. Inan and Troy G. Wood: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSSL Laboratory, Penn State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Victor P. Pasko & John D. Mathews

  2. Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, 87801, New Mexico, USA

    Mark A. Stanley

  3. STAR Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Umran S. Inan & Troy G. Wood

Authors
  1. Victor P. Pasko
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  2. Mark A. Stanley
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  4. Umran S. Inan
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  5. Troy G. Wood
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Correspondence to Victor P. Pasko or Mark A. Stanley.

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Pasko, V., Stanley, M., Mathews, J. et al. Electrical discharge from a thundercloud top to the lower ionosphere. Nature 416, 152–154 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/416152a

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