Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Modeling Initial Breakdown Pulses Of Intracloud Lightning Flashes, Nilmini Karunarathne, Thomas C. Marshall, Sumedhe Karunarathne, Maribeth Stolzenburg
Modeling Initial Breakdown Pulses Of Intracloud Lightning Flashes, Nilmini Karunarathne, Thomas C. Marshall, Sumedhe Karunarathne, Maribeth Stolzenburg
Faculty and Student Publications
In this study 29 initial breakdown pulses (IBPs) from four intracloud (IC) lightning flashes are modeled using data from five or more electric field change (E-change) sites. For each flash the first 5–9 located IBPs are investigated. For each IBP the modeling first extracts the IBP current waveform from the E-change data by matrix inversion and then determines the best channel length and current velocity to match the IBP data. Derived IBP quantities of total charge, charge moment, peak current, peak radiated power, and total energy are calculated. Resulting IBP vertical lengths varied from 27 m to 1300 m; most …