Outbreak of Negative Narrow Bipolar Events in Two Mid-Latitude Thunderstorms Featuring Overshooting Tops

Lightning discharges are the electrical production in thunderclouds. They radiate the bulk of radio signals in the very low-frequency and low-frequency (VLF/LF) that can be detected by ground-based receivers. One kind of special intra-cloud lightning discharges known as narrow bipolar events (NBEs)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRemote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 13; no. 24; p. 5130
Main Authors Liu, Feifan, Zhu, Baoyou, Lu, Gaopeng, Ma, Ming
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2021
Subjects
Altitude
Balloon sounding
Discharge
Doppler radar
electrical remote sensing
Latitude
LF radio
Lightning
narrow bipolar events (NBEs)
Outbreaks
overshooting tops
Polarity
Radar
Radar arrays
Radio signals
Remote sensing
Stratosphere
Thunderstorms
Troposphere
Very Low Frequencies
Weather
China
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Summary:Lightning discharges are the electrical production in thunderclouds. They radiate the bulk of radio signals in the very low-frequency and low-frequency (VLF/LF) that can be detected by ground-based receivers. One kind of special intra-cloud lightning discharges known as narrow bipolar events (NBEs) have been shown to be rare but closely linked to the convective activity that leads to hazardous weather. However, there is still lack of understanding on the meteorological conditions for thunderstorm-producing NBEs, especially for those of negative polarity, due to their rare occurrence. In this work, we aim to investigate what meteorological and electrical conditions of thunderclouds favor the production of negative NBEs. Combining with the VLF/LF radio signal measured by Jianghuai Area Sferic Array (JASA), S-band Doppler radar observation and balloon sounding data, two mid-latitude thunderstorms with outbreaks of negative NBEs at midnight in East China were analyzed. The comparison with the vertical radar profile shows that the bursts of negative NBEs occurred near thunderclouds with overshooting tops higher than 18 km. Manifestation of negative NBEs is observed with a relatively low spectrum width near thundercloud tops. Our findings suggest that the detection of negative NBEs would provide a unique electrical means to remotely probe overshooting tops with implications for the exchange of troposphere and stratosphere.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs13245130