CMG COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH in Measurement and Analysis of Thunderstorm Electrification and Lightning

该项目通过对雷暴中电荷运动的详细分析，推进了对雷暴带电和电动力学的理解，因为电荷是由云过程产生的，由风和重力输送，由闪电放电，并在大气中进行。 这项研究利用了一个拟议的宽带电场传感器网络，部署在朗缪尔实验室的射频闪电测绘阵列（位于新墨西哥州的马格达莱纳山脉）附近。 来自两个传感器网络的数据与最近开发的数学反演算法一起沿着提供了雷暴中电荷传输的地图。 进一步的分析给出了雷暴电流发生器的详细描述，云中正电荷或负电荷积累的位置。 雷暴发生器被用作雷暴的数学模拟的输入，在该模拟中，在建模域中的每个地方评估电势、电场和电荷密度。 闪电放电技术将利用新开发的数学算法来计算由于闪电放电而引起的电势变化。 这些算法用闪电通道的图形来表示电位的变化。 闪电映射阵列探测到的实际闪电通道将被用作闪电放电算法的输入。拟议的电场网络将专门确定雷暴云内的电荷流和电流，这是与闪电对建筑物、电机和国家电网的破坏有关的重要物理量。 在这个建议中开发的闪电放电例程可以与动态云模型相结合，它描述了与雷暴相关的风和水分，以获得一个完整的描述雷暴云的微观物理和运输和电荷的中和闪电。在拟议的研究期间开发的电场传感器可以与射频闪电映射阵列一起操作，以评估空间仪器区域中电荷簇的大小。这种仪器将来可以部署在机场和发射设施附近，为空中交通和航天器控制人员提供有关整个仪器区域雷击可能性的更多信息。

This project advances understanding of thunderstorm electrification and electrical dynamics by undertaking a detailed analysis of charge motion in a thunderstorm as charge is generated by cloud processes, transported by wind and gravity, discharged by lightning, and conducted in the atmosphere. The research utilizes a proposed network of broad-band electric field sensors deployed in the vicinity of Langmuir Laboratory's radio-frequency Lightning Mapping Array (located in the Magdalena mountains of New Mexico). Data from the two sensor networks along with recently developed mathematical inversion algorithms provide a map of the charge transport in a thunderstorm. Further analysis gives a detailed description of the thunderstorm current generators, the locations in the cloud where positive or negative charge accumulate. The thunderstorm generators are used as input to a mathematical simulation of the thunderstorm in which the electric potential, electric field, and charge density are evaluated everywhere in the modeled domain. The lightning discharge techniques will exploit newly developed mathematical algorithms for computing the change in electric potential due to a lightning discharge. These algorithms express the electric potential change in terms of the graph of the lightning channel. Actual lightning channels, as detected by the Lightning Mapping Array, will be used as input to the lightning discharge algorithm.The proposed electric field network will specialize in determining charge-flow and current within a thundercloud, important physical quantities that are related to lightning damage to structures, to electrical machines, and to the national electric grid. The lightning discharge routines developed in this proposal could be combined with dynamic cloud models, which describe the wind and moisture associated with a thunderstorm, to obtain a complete description of the microphysics of a thundercloud and the transport and neutralization of charge by lightning. The electric field sensors developed during the proposed research could be operated in conjunction with a radio-frequency Lightning Mapping Array to assess the magnitude of charge clusters in an instrumented region of space. Such instrumentation could, in the future, be deployed near airports and launch facilities to provide air traffic and spacecraft controllers with additional information concerning the likelihood of lightning strikes throughout the instrumented region.