Employing optical lightning data to identify lightning flashes associated to terrestrial gamma-ray flashes.

Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are bursts of energetic X- and gamma-rays emitted from thunderstorms. The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) mounted onto the International Space Station (ISS) is dedicated to measure TGFs and optical signatures of lightning; ISS LIS (Lightning Imaging Sensor) detects lightning flashes allowing for simultaneous measurements with ASIM. Whilst ASIM measures ∼300-400 TGFs per year, ISS LIS detects ∼106 annual lightning flashes giving a disproportion of four orders of magnitude. Based on the temporal evolution of lightning flashes and the spatial pattern of the constituing events, we present an algorithm to reduce the number of space-detected flashes potentially associated with TGFs by ∼ 60% and of associated LIS groups by ∼ 95%. We use ASIM measurements to confirm that the resulting flashes are indeed those associated with TGFs detected at approx. 400 km altitude and thus benchmark our algorithm preserving 70-80% of TGFs from concurrent ASIM-LIS measurements. We compare how the radiance, footprint size and the global distribution of lightning flashes of the reduced set relates to the average of all measured lightning flashes and do not observe any significant difference. Finally, we present a parameter study of our algorithm and discuss which parameters can be tweaked to maximize the reduction efficiency whilst keeping flashes associated to TGFs. In the future, this algorithm will hence be capable of facilitating the search for TGFs in a reduced set of lightning flashes measured from space.

Imaging of 3 bright terrestrial gamma-ray flashes by the atmosphere-space interactions monitor and their parent thunderstorms.

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station (ISS) includes an instrument designed to geolocate Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGF) produced by thunderstorms. It does so with a coded aperture system shadowing the pixelated Low Energy Detector of the Modular X- and Gamma-ray Sensor (MXGS). Additionally, it locates associated lightning flashes with the Modular Multispectral Imaging Array (MMIA). Here we present 3 bright TGFs with very similar duration, fluency and observation distance. The innovative imaging capabilities allow us to determine the TGF position and correlate the TGF-lightning parent event in time and position simultaneously. The accurate position determination and distance to the observer allow us to perform a comparative study of TGF characteristics. These TGFs were produced in association with lightning flashes below the highest cloud tops of developing to mature convective cells. In one event, GLM (Geostationary Lightning Mapper) cloud flash rates were slowing down after the TGF while negative cloud-to-ground flashes suddenly ceased from 10 to 5 min before the TGF. An 8-stroke (strongest: -93 kA) cloud-to-ground flash occurred 31 s before the TGF. Vertical profiles from the ERA5 reanalysis data suggest TGFs may be produced in variety of tropical environments.

Multi-Pulse Corona Discharges in Thunderclouds Observed in Optical and Radio Bands.

How lightning initiates inside thunderclouds remains a major puzzle of atmospheric electricity. By monitoring optical emissions from thunderstorms, the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) onboard the International Space Station is providing new clues about lightning initiation by detecting Blue LUminous Events (BLUEs), which are manifestations of electrical corona discharges that sometimes precedes lightning. Here we combine optical and radio observations from a thunderstorm near Malaysia to uncover a new type of event containing multiple optical and radio pulses. We find that the first optical pulse coincides with a strong radio signal in the form of a Narrow Bipolar Event (NBE) but subsequent optical pulses, delayed some milliseconds, have weaker radio signals, possibly because they emanate from a horizontally oriented electrical discharges which does not trigger full-fledged lightning. Our results cast light on the differences between isolated and lightning-initiating electrical discharges.

Analysis of Blue Corona Discharges at the Top of Tropical Thunderstorm Clouds in Different Phases of Convection.

We report on observations of corona discharges at the uppermost region of clouds characterized by emissions in a blue band of nitrogen molecules at 337 nm, with little activity in the red band of lightning leaders at 777.4 nm. Past work suggests that they are generated in cloud tops reaching the tropopause and above. Here we explore their occurrence in two convective environments of the same storm: one is developing with clouds reaching above the tropopause, and one is collapsing with lower cloud tops. We focus on those discharges that form a distinct category with rise times below 20 µs, implying that they are at the very top of the clouds. The discharges are observed in both environments. The observations suggest that a range of storm environments may generate corona discharges and that they may be common in convective surges.

Optical emissions associated with narrow bipolar events from thunderstorm clouds penetrating into the stratosphere.

Narrow bipolar events (NBEs) are signatures in radio signals from thunderstorms observed by ground-based receivers. NBEs may occur at the onset of lightning, but the discharge process is not well understood. Here, we present spectral measurements by the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station that are associated with nine negative and three positive NBEs observed by a ground-based array of receivers. We found that both polarities NBEs are associated with emissions at 337 nm with weak or no detectable emissions at 777.4 nm, suggesting that NBEs are associated with streamer breakdown. The rise times of the emissions for negative NBEs are about 10 µs, consistent with source locations at cloud tops where photons undergo little scattering by cloud particles, and for positive NBEs are ~1 ms, consistent with locations deeper in the clouds. For negative NBEs, the emission strength is almost linearly correlated with the peak current of the associated NBEs. Our findings suggest that ground-based observations of radio signals provide a new means to measure the occurrences and strength of cloud-top discharges near the tropopause.

Spectral Observations of Optical Emissions Associated With Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes.

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor measures Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs) simultaneously with optical emissions from associated lightning activity. We analyzed optical measurements at 180-230, 337, and 777.4 nm related to 69 TGFs observed between June 2018 and October 2019. All TGFs are associated with optical emissions and 90% of them are at the onset of a large optical pulse, suggesting that they are connected with the initiation of current surges. A model of photon delay induced by cloud scattering suggests that the sources of the optical pulses are from 0.7 ms before to 4.4 ms after the TGFs, with a median of -10 ± 80 µs, and 1-5 km below the cloud top. The pulses have rise times comparable to lightning but longer durations. Pulse amplitudes at 337 nm are ∼3 times larger than at 777.4 nm. The results support the leader-streamer mechanism for TGF generation.

Observation of the onset of a blue jet into the stratosphere.

Blue jets are lightning-like, atmospheric electric discharges of several hundred millisecond duration that fan into cones as they propagate from the top of thunderclouds into the stratosphere1. They are thought to initiate in an electric breakdown between the positively charged upper region of a cloud and a layer of negative charge at the cloud boundary and in the air above. The breakdown forms a leader that transitions into streamers2 when propagating upwards3. However, the properties of the leader, and the altitude to which it extends above the clouds, are not well characterized4. Blue millisecond flashes in cloud tops5,6 have previously been associated with narrow bipolar events7,8, which are 10- to 30-microsecond pulses in wideband electric field records, accompanied by bursts of intense radiation at 3 to 300 megahertz from discharges with short (inferred) channel lengths (less than one kilometre)9-11. Here we report spectral measurements from the International Space Station, which offers an unimpeded view of thunderclouds, with 10-microsecond temporal resolution. We observe five intense, approximately 10-microsecond blue flashes from a thunderstorm cell. One flash initiates a pulsating blue jet to the stratopause (the interface between the stratosphere and the ionosphere). The observed flashes were accompanied by 'elves'12 in the ionosphere. Emissions from lightning leaders in the red spectral band are faint and localized, suggesting that the flashes and the jet are streamer ionization waves, and that the leader elements at their origin are short and localized. We propose that the microsecond flashes are the optical equivalent of negative narrow bipolar events observed in radio waves. These are known to initiate lightning within the cloud and to the ground, and blue lightning into the stratosphere, as reported here.

A terrestrial gamma-ray flash and ionospheric ultraviolet emissions powered by lightning.

Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are transient gamma-ray emissions from thunderstorms, generated by electrons accelerated to relativistic energies in electric fields. Elves are ultraviolet and optical emissions excited in the lower ionosphere by electromagnetic waves radiated from lightning current pulses. We observed a TGF and an associated elve using the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor on the International Space Station. The TGF occurred at the onset of a lightning current pulse that generated an elve, in the early stage of a lightning flash. Our measurements suggest that the current onset is fast and has a high amplitude-a prerequisite for elves-and that the TGF is generated in the electric fields associated with the lightning leader.