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Detailed Reference Information |
Wescott, E.M., Sentman, D.D., Heavner, M.J., Hampton, D.L., Osborne, D.L. and Vaughan, O.H. (1996). Blue starters¿ Brief upward discharges from an intense Arkansas thunderstorm. Geophysical Research Letters 23: doi: 10.1029/96GL01969. issn: 0094-8276. |
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This paper documents the first observations of a new stratospheric electrical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms. On the night of 30 June (UT 1 July) 1994, 30 examples of these events, which we have called ''blue starters,'' were observed in a 6 m 44 s interval above the very energetic Arkansas thunderstorm where blue jets were first observed. The blue starters are distinguished from blue jets by a much lower terminal altitude. They are bright and blue in color, and protrude upward from the cloud top (17--18 km) to a maximum 25.5 km (83,655 ft.) in altitude. All blue starters events were recorded from two small areas near Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas where hail 7.0 cm in diameter was falling. Comparison to cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes revealed: 1. Blue starters were not observed to be coincident with either positive or negative CG flashes, but they do occur in the same general area as negative CG flashes; 2. Cumulative distributions of the negative CG flashes in ¿5 s before and after the starter and within a radius of 50 km shows a significant reduction for about 3 s following the event in the two cells where starters and jets were observed. The energy deficit is approximately 109 J. It is possible that blue starters are a short-lived streamer phenomenon. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996 |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, General or miscellaneous |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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