Matt Heavner (heavner@lanl.gov) Los Alamos National Laboratory
Victor Pasko (vpasko@psu.edu) Penn State University
Mike Taylor (mtaylor@cc.usu.edu) Utah State University
Front Range, 1:15-3:15
Tuesday, June 19, 2001
This workshop will discuss various questions related to the physical nature and energetics of sprites and related optical phenomena formed as a result of strong electrodynamic coupling of tropospheric thunderstorms to the mesospheric and lower ionospheric regions.
Sprites are spectacular luminous glows which occupy volumes in excess of thousands of cubic kilometers in clear air above thunderstorms in the altitude range ~40-90 km. Sprites often exhibit an amorphous non structured glow at their tops, which gradually converts to highly (predominantly vertically) structured breakdown regions at lower altitudes. Sprites are transient in nature and last only a small fraction of a second following intense positive or negative lightning discharges (more than 90% of sprites are associated with positive lightning discharges). It appears from space shuttle observations that sprites occur over most regions of the globe (in temperate and tropical areas, over the oceans, and over the land). To date sprites have been successfully detected from ground and airborne platforms in North, Central and South America, in Europe, in Australia and over winter storms in Japan.
The subjects to be discussed include:
Dr. Steve Mende (Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkelely) will present information on new exciting satellite based observing experiment of Sprites. In collaboration with the National Chen Kung University of Taiwan and the Tohoku University of Japan an instrument (ISUAL) is being built to be flown on the ROCSAT-2 spacecraft. The ROCSAT-2 project sponsored by the National Space Program Office of Taiwan . The ISUAL instrument is an optical package consisting of a camera and a set of bore-sighted photometers. Currently the launch date is late 2003.
The workshop will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss possible collaborative opportunities and to start planning coordinated observations for the ISUAL program. Additional technical information on the ISUAL project can be obtained at http://ssl.berkeley.edu/research.html.
Please see the following web sites for more information on sprites
and related atmospheric optical effects