Using Lightning Flashes to Image Thunderclouds.

ABSTRACT: The optical energy emitted by lightning flashes interacts with the surrounding cloud medium through scattering and absorption. The optical signals recorded by space-based lightning imagers describe a convolution of lightning flash energetics and radiative transfer effects in the intervening cloud layer. A thundercloud imaging technique is presented that characterizes cloud regions based on how they are illuminated by lightning. This technique models the spatial distribution of optical energy in radiant lightning pulses to determine whether and to what extent each illuminated cloud pixel behaves like a homogeneous planar cloud layer. A gridded product is constructed that differentiates flashes that illuminate convective cells from stratiform flashes with long horizontal channels and anvil f

SUBMITTER: Peterson M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6894159 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature