Observed emission rates in sprite streamer heads

Sprite observations at 10,000 fps have shown tendrils and branches to be formed by bright streamer heads moving at ∼107 m/s. The streamer heads typically brighten as they move up or down, often saturating the detector. We present here inferred emission rates. The streamer heads are presumably smalle...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2007-06, Vol.34 (11), p.L11105-n/a
Main Authors: STENBAEK-NIELSEN, H. C, MCHARG, M. G, KANMAE, T, SENTMAN, D. D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric Processes
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Lightning
Mesospheric dynamics
Middle atmosphere dynamics
Radiative processes
sprites
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Summary:Sprite observations at 10,000 fps have shown tendrils and branches to be formed by bright streamer heads moving at ∼107 m/s. The streamer heads typically brighten as they move up or down, often saturating the detector. We present here inferred emission rates. The streamer heads are presumably smaller than our 140 m spatial resolution and, therefore, they have to be treated as point sources. The optical emissions are assumed to be dominated by the N2 1P band and comparing with stars in the images we find total emission rates in individual streamer heads ranging from 4 1021 to 3 1024 photons/s. For a 25 m streamer head the range of average brightness would be 9 108–5 1011 R. Alternatively, using a volume emission rate of 8 1011 photons/cm3/s the size range would be 10 to 100 m.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2007GL029881