ICCD imagery of oceanic sprites*

As reported in Su et al [GRL vol. 29(4), doi 10.1029/2001GL013737, 2002] and Hsu et al [JASTP vol. 65, p561-566, 2003], the oceanic sprites tend to appear in single column, which is in sharp contrast with the clustering land sprites. In the 2003 Taiwan Sprites campaign, one of the scientific goals is to study the oceanic sprites in detail. The recorded images confirm the oceanic/land morphology disparity as reported before. Three of the ICCD cameras deployed in this campaign were equipped with R, G, B filters to obtain high spatial resolution and tri-color optical images. From the red and blue bands images, the spatial distribution and the energy of oceanic sprites could be evaluated. We will also compare the energy distribution of various types of oceanic sprites. Using stars in the star field as standard luminous gauges, the optical brightness of the oceanic sprites was estimated to exceed 5 MR. Using ICCD cameras set to different gain levels; the spatial brightness distribution of the oceanic sprites was also explored. * This work is supported in part by 92-NSPO(B)-ISUAL-FA09-01 and NSC 92-2111-M-006-002.