Electromagnetic power of lightning superbolts from Earth to space

Journal Article · Fri Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23740-6· OSTI ID:1815480

Ripoll, J. -F. ^[1]; Farges, T. ^[2]; Malaspina, D. M. ^[3]; Cunningham, G. S. ^[4]; Lay, E. H. ^[5]; Hospodarsky, G. B. ^[6]; Kletzing, C. A. ^[6]; Wygant, J. R. ^[7]; Pédeboy, S. ^[8]

---

1. Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Arpajon (France). Inst. of Theoretical Physics; OSTI
2. Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Arpajon (France). Inst. of Theoretical Physics
3. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Lab. for Atmospheric and Space Physics
4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Space Science and Applications Group
5. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Space and Remote Sensing Group
6. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
7. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). School of Physics and Astronomy
8. Météorage, Pau (France)

Lightning superbolts are the most powerful and rare lightning events with intense optical emission, first identified from space. Superbolt events occurred in 2010-2018 could be localized by extracting the high energy tail of the lightning stroke signals measured by the very low frequency ground stations of the World-Wide Lightning Location Network. Here, we report electromagnetic observations of superbolts from space using Van Allen Probes satellite measurements, and ground measurements, and with two events measured both from ground and space. From burst-triggered measurements, we compute electric and magnetic power spectral density for very low frequency waves driven by superbolts, both on Earth and transmitted into space, demonstrating that superbolts transmit 10-1000 times more powerful very low frequency waves into space than typical strokes and revealing that their extreme nature is observed in space. We find several properties of superbolts that notably differ from most lightning flashes; a more symmetric first ground-wave peak due to a longer rise time, larger peak current, weaker decay of electromagnetic power density in space with distance, and a power mostly confined in the very low frequency range. Their signal is absent in space during day times and is received with a long-time delay on the Van Allen Probes. These results have implications for our understanding of lightning and superbolts, for ionosphere-magnetosphere wave transmission, wave propagation in space, and remote sensing of extreme events.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Triad National Security, LLC, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
• Contributing Organization: World Wide Lightning Location Network
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1815480
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1874165
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-20-24693; PII: 23740
• Journal Information: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
heliospheric and magnetospheric physics
superbolt
lightning
radiation belt
Van Allen probes
EMFISIS