Remote Sensing, Modeling, and Spectroscopic Studies of Gigantic Jets and Lightning Leaders
Abstract
This dissertation focuses on four interrelated investigations with the ultimate goal
of better understanding electrical phenomena in the lower and upper atmosphere.
The four investigations utilized observations and data analysis for electrical discharges occurring in the troposphere, such as cloud-to-ground and intracloud discharges, and discharges occurring in the stratosphere/lower ionosphere, known as
gigantic jets. The observations are from ground-based high-speed cameras and
lightning locating systems, space-borne lightning imagers, and remote and in-situ
meteorological instrumentation. Numerical modeling was also performed to study
the lightning associated with gigantic jets by using a stochastic lighting propagation model. Finally, this dissertation focuses on the design and construction of a
high-speed spectrograph that can be used for studying lightning and transient luminous events. Preliminary observations of lightning leaders using this state-of-art
spectrograph will be presented and analyzed to characterize its performance for
future observation campaigns.