Height Determination of a Blue Discharge Observed by ASIM/MMIA on the International Space Station

Xue Bai, Martin Fullekrug, Olivier Chanrion, Serge Soula, Adam Peverell, Dakalo Mashao, Michael Kosch, Lasse Husbjerg, Nikolai Østgaard, Torsten Neubert, Victor Reglero

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1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

We analyze simultaneous photometric observations of thundercloud discharges from the Modular Multispectral Imaging Array of the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on board the International Space Station with ground-based vertical electric field measurements in South Africa on 3 February 2019 at 23:00–23:05 UTC. During this time, ASIM flew over an extended thunderstorm front of several hundreds of kilometers and recorded a blue discharge with the photometer at 337 nm which emitted strong electric fields. It is found that the rising edge of the blue photomultiplier tube light pulse allows the estimation of the blue discharge height: ∼10.9–16.5 km which is constrained by cloud top height in a range of ∼13.3–16.7 km deduced from infrared radiometry on board the geostationary Meteosat satellite. The electric field measurements are used to infer the height of the blue discharge to be ∼16.0–18.8 km by use of skywave arrival times. It is shown that the height determinations are consistent with each other within the measurement uncertainties and the possible presence of an overshooting cloud top is discussed. The height of blue discharges is important to better understand how they can affect the chemistry in the upper troposphere.
Original languageEnglish
Article number e2022JD037460
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research : Atmospheres
Volume128
Issue number7
Early online date26 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

The work of X.B. was sponsored by URSA under the project Grant EA-EE1250. The work of M.F., D.M., and M.K. was sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) Grant NMG/R1/180252 and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) under Grants NE/L012669/1 and NE/H024921/1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant agreement 722337. ASIM is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and is funded by ESA and by national grants of Denmark, Norway, and Spain. The ASIM Science data center is supported by ESA PRODEX contracts C 4000115884 (DTU) and 4000123438 (Bergen). The work of V.R. was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Grant PID2019-109269RB-C41. This study was supported by the Research Council of Norway under contract 223252/F50 (CoE). The authors thank the French AERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center which provided MSG/SEVIRI data for cloud top temperature. They thank the European Copernicus/ECMWF data center, the US NCEP/NCAR, and NOAA for providing meteorological reanalysis. They thank also the SALDN, ENTLN, and GLD360 for providing the lightning and radar data. The authors wish to thank Simon Ghilain for initiating this work and the reviewers for their assistance to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Data Availability Statement
The data used for this publication will be available from https://doi.org/10.15125/BATH-01103

Funding Information:
The work of X.B. was sponsored by URSA under the project Grant EA‐EE1250. The work of M.F., D.M., and M.K. was sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) Grant NMG/R1/180252 and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) under Grants NE/L012669/1 and NE/H024921/1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska‐Curie Grant agreement 722337. ASIM is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and is funded by ESA and by national grants of Denmark, Norway, and Spain. The ASIM Science data center is supported by ESA PRODEX contracts C 4000115884 (DTU) and 4000123438 (Bergen). The work of V.R. was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Grant PID2019‐109269RB‐C41. This study was supported by the Research Council of Norway under contract 223252/F50 (CoE). The authors thank the French AERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center which provided MSG/SEVIRI data for cloud top temperature. They thank the European Copernicus/ECMWF data center, the US NCEP/NCAR, and NOAA for providing meteorological reanalysis. They thank also the SALDN, ENTLN, and GLD360 for providing the lightning and radar data. The authors wish to thank Simon Ghilain for initiating this work and the reviewers for their assistance to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Funding Information:
The work of X.B. was sponsored by URSA under the project Grant EA-EE1250. The work of M.F., D.M., and M.K. was sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) Grant NMG/R1/180252 and the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) under Grants NE/L012669/1 and NE/H024921/1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant agreement 722337. ASIM is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and is funded by ESA and by national grants of Denmark, Norway, and Spain. The ASIM Science data center is supported by ESA PRODEX contracts C 4000115884 (DTU) and 4000123438 (Bergen). The work of V.R. was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Grant PID2019-109269RB-C41. This study was supported by the Research Council of Norway under contract 223252/F50 (CoE). The authors thank the French AERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center which provided MSG/SEVIRI data for cloud top temperature. They thank the European Copernicus/ECMWF data center, the US NCEP/NCAR, and NOAA for providing meteorological reanalysis. They thank also the SALDN, ENTLN, and GLD360 for providing the lightning and radar data. The authors wish to thank Simon Ghilain for initiating this work and the reviewers for their assistance to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Keywords

  • atmospheric electricity
  • blue discharge
  • electromagnetic noise
  • lightning
  • microphysics
  • thunderstorm

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geophysics
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Space and Planetary Science
  • Atmospheric Science

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