Elves triggered by positive and negative lightning discharges

Abstract

Optical flashes in the lower ionosphere due to the transient heating caused by lightning electromagnetic pulses (EMP) are unambiguously identified with the Fly's Eye photometric array. Data from a thunderstorm over Mexico recorded at Langmuir Laboratory on August 27 1997 demonstrate that relatively common negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning is a previously unrecognized major cause of elves. The spatial extent of the transient heating is shown optically to be typically at least 200–700 km laterally, indicating the possibility for accumulation of ionization effects produced by successive flashes within large nighttime thunderstorm systems. One especially bright event suggests that temporal fine‐structure in the causative very low frequency EMP can manifest itself in the photometric record of elves.