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Holzworth et al. 2005
Holzworth, R.H., McCarthy, M.P., Thomas, J.N., Chin, J., Chinowsky, T.M., Taylor, M.J. and Pinto, O. (2005). Strong electric fields from positive lightning strokes in the stratosphere. Geophysical Research Letters 32: doi: 10.1029/2004GL021554. issn: 0094-8276.

A balloon payload launched in Brazil has measured vector electric fields from lightning at least an order of magnitude larger than previously reported above 30 km in the stratosphere. During the flight hundreds of lightning events were recorded, including several positive cloud to ground lightning strokes. A two stroke flash, with small (15 kA peak current) and moderate (53 kA) positive strokes at a horizontal range of 34 km, produced field changes over 140 V/m at 34 km altitude. On-board optical lightning detection, recorded with GPS timing, coupled with ground based lightning location gives high time resolution for study of the electric field transient propagation. These measurements imply that lightning electric fields in the mesosphere over large thunderstorms may be much larger than previously measured.

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Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Processes, Atmospheric electricity, Atmospheric Processes, Lightning, Atmospheric Processes, Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342), Atmospheric Processes, Instruments and techniques
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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