The Electrical Structure of Two Supercell Storms during STEPS
Donald R. MacGorman,W. David Rust,Paul R. Krehbiel,William Rison,Eric C. Bruning,Kyle C. Wiens +5 more
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In this paper, the authors made balloon soundings through two supercell storms during the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) in summer 2000 and found that the strong updraft had fewer vertically separated charge regions than found near the rainy downdraft, and the lowest charge was elevated higher, its bottom being near the 40-dBZ boundary of the weak-echo vault.Abstract:
Balloon soundings were made through two supercell storms during the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) in summer 2000. Instruments measured the vector electric field, temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and balloon location. For the first time, soundings penetrated both the strong updraft and the rainy downdraft region of the same supercell storm. In both storms, the strong updraft had fewer vertically separated charge regions than found near the rainy downdraft, and the updraft’s lowest charge was elevated higher, its bottom being near the 40-dBZ boundary of the weak-echo vault. The simpler, elevated charge structure is consistent with the noninductive graupel–ice mechanism dominating charge generation in updrafts. In the weak-echo vault, the amount of frozen precipitation and the time for particle interactions are too small for significant charging. Inductive charging mechanisms and lightning may contribute to the additional charge regions found at lower a...read more
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The 29 June 2000 Supercell Observed during STEPS. Part II: Lightning and Charge Structure
TL;DR: The second part of a two-part study examines the lightning and charge structure evolution of the 29 June 2000 tornadic supercell observed during the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Total lightning activity as an indicator of updraft characteristics
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship of total lightning activity and updraft characteristics, such as updraft volume and maximum updraft speed, for a number of storms of different types occurring in the High Plains and in Northern Alabama.
Journal ArticleDOI
The relationship between lightning activity and ice fluxes in thunderstorms
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used dual-polarimetric and dual-Doppler radar observations in conjunction with total lightning data collected in Northern Alabama and also Colorado/Kansas during two field campaigns to investigate total lightning activity as a function of precipitation and nonprecipitation ice masses and estimates of their fluxes for different storm types in different climate regions.
Journal ArticleDOI
TELEX The Thunderstorm Electrification and Lightning Experiment
Donald R. MacGorman,W. David Rust,Terry J. Schuur,Michael I. Biggerstaff,Jerry M. Straka,Conrad L. Ziegler,Edward R. Mansell,Eric C. Bruning,Kristin M. Kuhlman,Nicole R. Lund,Nicholas S. Biermann,Clark D. Payne,Lawrence D. Carey,Paul R. Krehbiel,William Rison,Kenneth B. Eack,William H. Beasley +16 more
TL;DR: In this article, measurements during TELEX by a lightning mapping array, polarimetric and mobile Doppler radars, and balloon-borne electric field meters and radiosondes showed how lightning and other electrical properties depend on storm structure, updrafts, and precipitation formation.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) Field Campaign
Mary C. Barth,Christopher A. Cantrell,William H. Brune,Steven A. Rutledge,James H. Crawford,Heidi Huntrieser,Lawrence D. Carey,Donald R. MacGorman,Morris L. Weisman,Kenneth E. Pickering,Eric C. Bruning,Bruce E. Anderson,Eric C. Apel,Michael I. Biggerstaff,Teresa Campos,Pedro Campuzano-Jost,Ronald C. Cohen,John D. Crounse,Douglas A. Day,Glenn S. Diskin,Frank Flocke,Alan Fried,Charity Garland,Brian G. Heikes,Shawn B. Honomichl,Rebecca S. Hornbrook,L. Gregory Huey,Jose L. Jimenez,Timothy J. Lang,Michael Lichtenstern,Tomas Mikoviny,Benjamin A. Nault,Daniel O'Sullivan,Laura L. Pan,Jeff Peischl,Ilana B. Pollack,Dirk Richter,Daniel D. Riemer,Thomas B. Ryerson,Hans Schlager,Jason M. St. Clair,James Walega,Petter Weibring,Andrew J. Weinheimer,Paul O. Wennberg,Armin Wisthaler,Paul J. Wooldridge,Conrad L. Ziegler +47 more
TL;DR: The Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field experiment produced an exceptional dataset on thunderstorms, including their dynamical, physical, and electrical structures and their impact on the chemical composition of the troposphere as mentioned in this paper.
References
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