Winter thunderstorms in the Eastern Mediterranean and associated transient luminous events
During the winters of 2005-6 and 2006-7, optical ground-based observations were performed to detect transient luminous events (TLEs) above winter thunderstorms in the vicinity of Israel and the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. Two sites were used: the Tel Aviv University campus in Tel-Aviv (32.5N, 34.5E) and the Wise astronomical observatory in the Negev desert (30.6N, 34.76E). We also conducted ELF and VLF electromagnetic measurements from Tel-Aviv Universitys array in southern Israel. In 10 different observation nights we succeeded in detecting a total of 62 separate events: 56 sprites (7 preceded by sprite halos) and 9 ELVES. The detection ranges varied from 250 to 450km. Sprites were found to be produced exclusively by +CGs that can be traced to active cells with a vertical dimension of 5-7 km and cloud top temperature ~-40℃, embedded in a much larger matrix of stratiform cloudiness. This configuration closely resembles the conditions for winter sprites in the Hokuriku region of Japan.
Yoav Yair Gabriella Sátori Colin Price Michal Ganot Baruch Ziv Yosef Sherez Eran Greenberg Adam Devir Roy Yaniv Jozsef Bór
Department of Life and Natural Sciences, The Open University, Raanana 43107 Israel Geodetic and Geophysical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Sopron, Hungary Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978 Israel
国际会议
第13届国际大气电学会议(The 13th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity)
北京
英文
2007-08-13（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）