A case study of the Thunderstorm Research International Project storm of July 11, 1978. 1. Analysis of the data base

Journal Article · Fri Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JD095iD05p05417· OSTI ID:5110621

Nisbet, J S; Barnard, T A; Forbes, G S ^[1]; Krider, E P ^[2]; Lhermitte, R ^[3]; Lennon, C L ^[4]

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1. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park (United States)
2. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (United States)
3. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami, FL (United States)
4. NASA Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, FL (United States)

A coordinated analysis of the Thunderstorm Research International Project storm of July 11, 1978, from 1900 to 2000 UT at the Kennedy Space Center is presented using data from three Doppler radars, a lightning detection and ranging system and a network of 25 electric field mills, and rain gages. This storm produced two cells for which the center of the updraft remained within range of the observational network. Electric field measurements were used to analyze the charge moments transferred by lightning flashes. An attempt was made to analyze as large a percentage as possible of the flashes so that the measurements would be usable to study the charge moment transferred by lightning in the storm. These data were fitted to Weibull distributions which were used to estimate statistical parameters of the lightning for both intracloud and cloud-to-ground flashes and to estimate the fraction of the flashes which were below the observation threshold for the two cells studied. The displacement and conduction current densities were calculated throughout the storm from electric field measurements between flashes, and data are presented of values at 5-min intervals throughout the storm. These values were used to derive the magnitudes and locations of dipole and monopole generators by least squares fitting the measured Maxwell current densities to the displacement-dominated equations. Constrained fitting was used to examine the uniqueness of the solutions.

• OSTI ID: 5110621
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 95:D5; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
LIGHTNING
CHARGE TRANSPORT
CAPE KENNEDY
CLOUDS
CURRENT DENSITY
DOPPLER EFFECT
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRIC GROUNDS
HAZARDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
LEAST SQUARE FIT
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
OPTICAL RADAR
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
STORMS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISASTERS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
FEDERAL REGION IV
FLORIDA
MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD FIT
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
USA
540110*