Blue Flashes as Counterparts to Narrow Bipolar Events: the Optical
Signal of Shallow In-Cloud Discharges
Nikolai Østgaard
Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allegt. 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway, Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allegt. 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
Author ProfileAbstract
Narrow Bipolar Events (NBEs) are powerful radio emissions from
thunderstorms which have been recently associated with blue optical
flashes on cloud tops and attributed to extensive streamer electrical
discharges named fast breakdown. Combining data obtained from a
thunderstorm over South China by the space-based Atmosphere Space
Interactions Monitor (ASIM), the Vaisala GLD360 global lightning network
and very low frequency (VLF)/low frequency (LF) radio detectors, here we
report and analyze for the first time the optical emissions of Blue
LUminous Events (BLUEs) associated with negative NBEs and located at the
top edge of a thundercloud. These emissions are weakly affected by
scattering from cloud droplets, allowing us to estimate the source
extension and optical energy involved in the process. The optical energy
in the 337-nm band emitted by fast breakdown is about 10^4 J, which
involves around 10^9 streamer initiation events.