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All Physics Faculty Publications

2004

Brazil

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Thunderstorm And Lightning Characteristics Associated With Sprites In Brazil, O. Pinto Jr., M. M.F. Saba, I. R.C.A. Pinto, F. S.S. Tavares, K. P. Naccarato, N. N. Solorzano, Michael J. Taylor, P. D. Pautet, R. H. Holzworth Jul 2004

Thunderstorm And Lightning Characteristics Associated With Sprites In Brazil, O. Pinto Jr., M. M.F. Saba, I. R.C.A. Pinto, F. S.S. Tavares, K. P. Naccarato, N. N. Solorzano, Michael J. Taylor, P. D. Pautet, R. H. Holzworth

All Physics Faculty Publications

A study of the thunderstorm and cloud-ground lightning characteristics associated with sprite events observed in Brazil is presented. The study is based on ground and aircraft sprite observations with high sensitivity intensified CCD cameras of six different thunderstorms, GOES satellite infrared images, radar and lightning network data. A total of eighteen transient optical events were recorded at three different days in 2002 and 2003, sixteen of which exhibited vertical structures typically associated with sprites. Four thunderstorms were associated with two different cold fronts, one with a Mesoscale Convective System, and one was a local isolated thunderstorm. The sprites occurred during …


Plasma Blobs Observed By Ground-Based Optical And Radio Techniques In The Brazilian Tropical Sector, A. A. Pimenta, Y. Sahai, J. A. Bittencourt, M. A. Abdu, H. Takahashi, Michael J. Taylor Jun 2004

Plasma Blobs Observed By Ground-Based Optical And Radio Techniques In The Brazilian Tropical Sector, A. A. Pimenta, Y. Sahai, J. A. Bittencourt, M. A. Abdu, H. Takahashi, Michael J. Taylor

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Ground-based optical and radio observations were carried out in the tropical region in Brazil, during the period from October 1998 to September 2000, and on several occasions we detected F-region plasma blob (localized discrete plasma density enhancement) events. These are the first observations of blobs in the tropical F-region using combined ground-based optical and radio techniques. Allsky images were used to map the spatial extension and temporal location of plasma blobs and ionosonde and photometer measurements were used to measure the plasma densities. Interesting cases of plasma blob events were observed on October 07, 1999 and March 04, 2000 over …