Characteristics of the Pulse Luminosity in the Initial Breakdown Stage of Cloud-to-Ground and Intracloud Lightning

Abstract:

The most important unknown in the study of the lightning discharge is the physics of the initiation process. Both cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes lowering negative charge and intracloud (IC) flashes raising negative charge begin with a sequence of relatively large electric field pulses in the initial breakdown (IB) stage that are well documented, however, the pulse luminosity in the IB stage has not yet been analyzed with sufficient time resolution to properly resolve its characteristics. In the summers of 2013, 2014, and 2015 we simultaneously recorded luminosity and electric field waveforms from IB pulses in numerous ground discharges and, for the first time, in cloud discharges. For all of these events radar was available, and, for some, Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) 3-D location of sources during the IB stage. The upper frequency response of the luminosity measurement, made with a photodiode system was 50 MHz. In 2013 and 2014, thirty IB luminosity pulses in CG flashes had an average 10% to 90% rise time of 25 μs, average half width of 68 μs, and average delay time of 8 μs between start of the associated electric field and the start of the pulse luminosity. For IC flashes, thirty-seven luminosity pulses were analyzed and the three time-parameters were found to be significantly longer: 59 μs, 176 μs, and 34 μs. The roughly ten LMA sources associated with the time period of each initial breakdown in the 2014 data are grouped within about 1 km. The mean height of the LMA sources during the IB period for CG flashes is 4.4 km with a standard deviation of 490 m and the same data for IC flashes is 6.2 km and 550 m. It follows from these luminosity data that the physics of the initiation process of CG flashes and IC flashes may indeed be different. We discuss the potential influence of scattering of the optical signal on the IB pulse luminosity wave shapes and delay times. We also will discuss the summer 2015 data, which is being acquired at the time of this Abstract’s writing.