Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS
Volume 106, Issue A10, Pages 21549-21554Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2000JA000429
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Blue jets and blue starters are partially ionized luminous cones of primarily blue light that propagate upward out of the top of thunderstorms at speeds of order 100 km s(-1). Blue jets propagate up similar to 40 km, but blue starters, which resemble blue jets, terminate abruptly after only a few kilometers of upward travel. Theories on the origin of blue jets have proposed that they are due to either positive or negative streamers or runaway electrons. Quantitative analysis of new multi-instrument observations of a blue starter from an aircraft during the Energetics of Upper Atmospheric Excitation by Lightning, 1998 (EXL98) campaign of July 1998, shows that the ionization accounts for similar to3 % of the observed intensity. Quantitative analysis of a remarkable color photograph of a blue jet taken from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean shows that the minimum optical energy deposition was similar to0.5 MJ. The same photograph shows details of streamers never before seen.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available