Multi-instrumental observations of a positive gigantic jet produced by a winter thunderstorm in Europe
Abstract
At 2336:56 UTC on 12 December 2009, a bright gigantic jet (GJ) was recorded by an
observer in Italy. Forty-nine additional sprites, elves, halos and two cases of upward
lightning were observed that night. The location of the GJ corresponded to a distinct
cloud top (-34°C) west of Ajaccio, Corsica. The GJ reached approximately 91 km altitude,
with a "trailing jet" reaching 49-59 km, matching with earlier reported GJs. The duration
was short at 120-160 ms. This is the first documented GJ which emerged from a maritime
winter thunderstorm only 6.5 km tall, showing high cloud tops are not required for
initiation of GJs. In the presence of strong vertical wind shear, the meteorological
situation was different from typical outbreaks of fall and winter thunderstorms in
the Mediterranean. During the trailing jet phase of the GJ, a sprite with halo triggered
by a nearby cloud-to-ground lightning flash occurred at a relatively low altitude
(<72 km). At the same time, the trailing jet and beads were reilluminated. Electromagnetic
waveforms from Hungary, Poland, and the USA revealed this GJ is the first reported
to transfer negative charge (approximately 136 C) from the ionosphere to the positively
charged origins in the cloud (i.e., a positive cloud-to-ionosphere discharge, +CI),
with a large total charge moment change of 11600 C km and a maximum current of 3.3
kA. Early VLF transmitter amplitude perturbations detected concurrently with the GJ
confirm the production of large conductivity changes due to electron density enhancements
in the D-region of the ionosphere. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4211Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1029/2010JD014442Publication Info
Van Der Velde, OA; Bór, J; Li, J; Cummer, SA; Arnone, E; Zanotti, F; ... Farges, T (2010). Multi-instrumental observations of a positive gigantic jet produced by a winter thunderstorm
in Europe. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 115(24). pp. D24301. 10.1029/2010JD014442. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4211.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Steven A. Cummer
William H. Younger Distinguished Professor of Engineering
Dr. Steven Cummer received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University
in 1997 and prior to joining Duke University in 1999 he spent two years at NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center as an NRC postdoctoral research associate. Awards he has received
include a National Science Foundation CAREER award and a Presidential Early Career
Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2001. His current work is in a variety
of theoretical and experimental electromagnetic problems related to g

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