| Abstract: | The electric fields created by lightning discharges in a neutral atmosphere are calculated in the time representation. It is shown that asymmetric strokes containing horizontal currents can generate pronounced pulsed electric fields. A high-power quasistatic field can influence the middle atmosphere together with pulses. The motion of the current wave in a complex-geometry stroke channel can lead to an increase in the number of emitted pulses. At the periphery of the lightning cell, upon the arrival of the pulse, the electric field vector turns upward, to the stroke axis, and sideward. We also expect an increase in atmospheric turbulence due to convection at the frontal part of the cloud. The emerging inhomogeneities of the atmospheric temperature and density can facilitate the onset of plasma processes generated by the electric field of a strong thunderstorm. Since convection and the focusing electric fields are concentrated at the periphery, their joint action can lead to the appearance of circular and prolate luminous formations. Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics of the National Academy of Sciences, Khar’kov, Ukraine; The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 699–722, June, 1998. |
