TY - JOUR
T1 - Ionospheric Elves Powered by Corona Discharges in Overshooting Thunderclouds
AU - Liu, Feifan
AU - Neubert, Torsten
AU - Chanrion, Olivier
AU - Liu, Ningyu
AU - Zhu, Baoyou
AU - Lu, Gaopeng
AU - Lyu, Fanchao
AU - Qin, Zilong
AU - Luo, Ming
AU - Li, Dongshuai
AU - Dimitriadou, Krystallia
AU - Lei, Jiuhou
AU - Østgaard, Nikolai
AU - Reglero, Victor
AU - Kohn, Christoph
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Corona discharges in thundercloud tops are observed by the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) as blue flashes at the 337 nm spectral line of N2 and by ground receivers as so-called Narrow Bipolar Events (NBEs) in the radio signals. It has been suggested that the electromagnetic radiation from the discharges may be powerful enough to excite elves, the rapidly expanding rings of luminous emissions at the bottom ionosphere. Here we present optical observations by ASIM and simultaneous radio measurements by lightning receivers in China, that confirm this proposition. The concurrent measurements suggest that corona discharges at cloud tops generate elves observable by ASIM when the peak current exceeds similar to 140 kA in absolute value, as estimated from the NBE measurements. The appearance of elves offers an alternate method to estimate the corona discharge currents and alignments at cloud tops, relevant to the characterization of chemical perturbations to greenhouse gas agents at the tropical tropopause.
AB - Corona discharges in thundercloud tops are observed by the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) as blue flashes at the 337 nm spectral line of N2 and by ground receivers as so-called Narrow Bipolar Events (NBEs) in the radio signals. It has been suggested that the electromagnetic radiation from the discharges may be powerful enough to excite elves, the rapidly expanding rings of luminous emissions at the bottom ionosphere. Here we present optical observations by ASIM and simultaneous radio measurements by lightning receivers in China, that confirm this proposition. The concurrent measurements suggest that corona discharges at cloud tops generate elves observable by ASIM when the peak current exceeds similar to 140 kA in absolute value, as estimated from the NBE measurements. The appearance of elves offers an alternate method to estimate the corona discharge currents and alignments at cloud tops, relevant to the characterization of chemical perturbations to greenhouse gas agents at the tropical tropopause.
U2 - 10.1029/2024GL114090
DO - 10.1029/2024GL114090
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 52
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 6
M1 - e2024GL114090
ER -