Lightning observations with the Long Wavelength Array in Sevilleta, New Mexico (LWA-SV)
Abstract
Lightning observations using small (three-element) high-speed radio interferometers have enabled studies of the fast (microsecond-scale) processes associated with lightning initiation and lightning propagation [Rison et al., Nat. Commun., 7, 10721, 2016; Stock et al, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 122, 8135-8152, 2017; Tilles et al., Nat. Commun. 10, 1648, 2019]. Meanwhile, a new generation of large radio arrays, with some hundreds of sensing elements, were developed by the astronomy community to study increasingly transient phenomena, and can be used to map/image lightning with increasingly fine (meter-scale) spatial resolution [Hare et al., Nature, 568, 2019]. Here we present high-speed radio observations of lightning using the Long Wavelength Array in Sevilleta, New Mexico (LWA-SV), which consists of 256 dual-polarization antennas arranged within a roughly 100-meter diameter, and covers the frequencies 3-88 MHz. Designed with transient radio events in mind, the LWA-SV has a lightning trigger that can instantaneously capture all 256 dual-polarization measurements for 250 ms and 40 MHz bandwidth. We developed an algorithm to image lightning with the LWA-SV at sub-microsecond resolution, and can image multi-source/extended-source lightning emitters.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMAE010..01T
- Keywords:
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- 3304 Atmospheric electricity;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3314 Convective processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3324 Lightning;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3329 Mesoscale meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES