A model of preliminary breakdown pulse peak currents and their relation to the observed electric field pulses

作者：Kaspar, Petr; Santolik, Ondrej^*; Kolmasova, Ivana; Farges, Thomas

来源：Geophysical Research Letters, 2017, 44(1): 596-603.

DOI：10.1002/2016GL071483

• lightning initiation
• electromagnetic radiation
• preliminary breakdown pulses

Preliminary breakdown pulses (PBPs) occur in the initial phase of lightning. A realistic model for their description is employed to investigate relation between PBP peak currents and PBP electric field amplitudes and their relation to the return stroke (RS) peak currents. We demonstrate that the PBP peak currents can reach 200kA and can be comparable or higher than the corresponding RS peak currents. For a typical PBP electric field waveform PBP peak currents are approximately proportional to the electric field amplitudes. We show that the PBP bipolar overshoot depends primarily on the characteristic time of the line conductivity increase. The magnitude of the charge centers is demonstrated to be very large in order to model the observed PBPs with amplitudes up to 32V/m at 100km. Such energetic current pulses might be capable to produce elves or terrestrial gamma ray flashes.

• 出版日期2017-1
• 单位中国科学院大气物理研究所; 中国地震局