Lightning and Thunderstorm Studies

闪电和雷暴研究

• 批准号: 0536950
• 负责人: Paul Krehbiel
• 金额: $ 133.33万
• 依托单位: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-10-15 至 2012-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0536950&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Lightning; Thunderstorm; Studies

The five-year program of studies is a continuation of ongoing research aimed at improving our understanding of lightning discharges and discharge processes, and of the processes by which thunderstorms become highly electrified. Toward this end, a GPS-based system has been developed for mapping lightning discharges in three spatial dimensions and time, called the Lightning Mapping Array or LMA. The LMA observations show the total lightning activity in a storm and have proven to be valuable not only for scientific studies but also for meteorological applications, as an indicator of the convective strength and potential severity of storms.The research involves both scientific studies of lightning and storm electrification, and continued development and advancement of the lightning mapping observations for meteorological and related applications. The intellectual merit of the proposed research will result primarily from the scientific investigations, topics of which include further studies of storms that develop inverted-polarity electrical structures, studies of the new and different lightning types that have been found both in anomalous- and normal-polarity storms (e.g., inverted-polarity intracloud flashes, convective surge lightning, and short-duration energetic discharges), lightning initiation studies, and the use of lightning mapping observations to study the electrical structure of storms and evolution of the structure with time. The research is conducted in collaboration with other investigators using observations from already conducted field campaigns both in the Great Plains and in New Mexico, and will be expanded to include highly-detailed observations of individual lightning discharges from a compact network of closely-spaced mapping stations being set up at Langmuir Laboratory in central New Mexico. Broader impacts of the proposed activity result from further development of the lightning mapping technique as a useful technology, and the continued involvement of graduate and undergraduate students both in the scientific and applied aspects of the research. The research team works with mapping networks that have been provided to NASA in northern Alabama and to the University of Oklahoma and National Severe Storms Laboratory in central Oklahoma, and with a third network that is becoming operational at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The NASA group has been supplying real-time lightning data to the National Weather Service for nowcasting applications, and the same will be done with real-time data from the Oklahoma and White Sands networks.

这项为期五年的研究计划是正在进行的研究的延续，旨在提高我们对闪电放电和放电过程的理解，以及雷暴变得高度带电的过程。为此，人们开发了一种基于gps的系统，用于在三维空间和时间上对闪电放电进行测绘，称为闪电测绘阵列或LMA。LMA观测显示了风暴中的闪电活动总量，作为对流强度和风暴潜在严重程度的指标，不仅对科学研究有价值，而且对气象应用也有价值。这项研究既包括闪电和风暴电气化的科学研究，也包括气象和相关应用的闪电制图观测的持续发展和进步。所提议的研究的智力价值将主要来自科学调查，其主题包括进一步研究发展反极性电结构的风暴，研究在异常和正常极性风暴中发现的新的和不同的闪电类型（例如，反极性云内闪光，对流浪涌闪电和短时间能量放电），闪电开始研究，并利用闪电测绘观测研究了风暴的电性结构及其随时间的演变。这项研究是与其他研究人员合作进行的，他们使用了在大平原和新墨西哥州已经进行过的实地活动的观察结果，并将扩大到包括对新墨西哥州中部朗缪尔实验室建立的紧密间隔的地图站的紧凑网络的个人闪电放电的高度详细的观察。闪电测绘技术作为一项有用技术的进一步发展，以及研究生和本科生在科学和应用研究方面的持续参与，将产生更广泛的影响。研究小组使用的地图网络已经提供给阿拉巴马州北部的美国宇航局，俄克拉何马大学和俄克拉何马州中部的国家强风暴实验室，第三个网络正在新墨西哥州的白沙导弹靶场投入使用。NASA小组一直在为国家气象局的临近预报应用提供实时闪电数据，同样也将为俄克拉何马州和白沙网络提供实时数据。