A case study of lightning, whistlers, and associated ionospheric effects during a substorm particle injection event

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91JA02583· OSTI ID:5557559

Rodriguez, J V; Inan, U S ^[1]; Li, Y Q; Holzworth, R H ^[2]; Smith, A J ^[3]; Orville, R E ^[4]; Rosenberg, T J ^[5]

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1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle (United States)
3. British Antarctic Survey (NERC), Cambridge (United Kingdom)
4. New York State Univ., Albany (United States)
5. Univ. of Maryland, College Park (United States)

Simultaneous ground-based observations of narrowband and broadband VLF radio waves and of cloud-to-ground lightning were made at widely spaced locations during the 1987 Wave-Induced Particle Precipitation (WIPP) campaign, conducted from Wallops Island, Virginia. Based on these observations, the first case study has been made of the relationships among located cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes, whistlers, and associated ionospheric effects during a substorm particle injection event. This event took place 2 days after the strongest geomagnetic storm of 1987, during a reintensification in geomagnetic activity that did not affect the high rate of whistlers observed at Faraday Station, Antarctica. At the time of the injection event, several intense nighttime thunderstorms were located over Long Island and the coast of New England, between 400 km northwest and 600 km north of the region geomagnetically conjugate to Faraday. About two thirds of the CG flashes that were detected in these thunderstorms during the hour following the injection event onset were found to be causatively associated with whistlers received at Faraday. During the same period the amplitude of the 24.0-kHz signal from the NAA transmitter in Cutler, Maine, propagating over the thunderstorm centers toward Wallops Island was repeatedly perturbed in a manner characteristic of previously reported VLF signatures of transient and localized ionization enhancements at D region altitudes. Though such enhancements may have been caused by whistler-induced bursts electron precipitation from the magnetosphere, the data in this case are insufficient to establish a clear connection between the NAA amplitude perturbations and the Faraday Station whistlers. In view of the proximity of the NAA great circle path to the storm center, having the lower ionosphere by intense radiation from lightning may also have played a role in the observed VLF perturbations.

• OSTI ID: 5557559
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 97:A1; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
WHISTLERS
LIGHTNING
MAGNETIC BAYS
IONOSPHERIC EFFECTS
ATMOSPHERICS
ELECTRONS
ION DENSITY
IONIZATION
IONOSPHERE
MAGNETIC STORMS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
STORMS
WAVE PROPAGATION
CHARGED-PARTICLE PRECIPITATION
DISASTERS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
NOISE
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RADIATIONS
RADIO NOISE
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)