Streamer tip splitting in sprites

Five sprite events were observed above mesoscale thunderstorms in the midwest of the United States on 23 June 2007 with images recorded at 10,000 frames per second. We observe 75 streamer tips that propagate with no splitting and 42 streamer tips that split at some point while in the field of view....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 2010-08, Vol.115 (A8), p.n/a
Main Authors: McHarg, M. G., Stenbaek-Nielsen, H. C., Kanmae, T., Haaland, R. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric sciences
Lightning
Scientific apparatus & instruments
splitting
sprites
streamer
Thunderstorms
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Summary:Five sprite events were observed above mesoscale thunderstorms in the midwest of the United States on 23 June 2007 with images recorded at 10,000 frames per second. We observe 75 streamer tips that propagate with no splitting and 42 streamer tips that split at some point while in the field of view. In general, streamer tips that propagate and do not split are smaller in width, and less bright. The median streamer tip radius for propagating streamer tips is 193 m, while the median value for splitting streamer tips is 389 m. Streamer tips that split become wider and brighter shortly before they are observed to split. Our observations compare favorably with theoretical models based on viscous fingering of the streamer heads leading to streamer tip splitting.
ISSN:0148-0227
2169-9380
2156-2202
2169-9402
DOI:10.1029/2009JA014850