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The relationship of lightning radio pulse amplitudes and source altitudes as observed by LOFAR
  • +15
  • João Machado,
  • O. Scholten,
  • Brian Hare,
  • S. Buitink,
  • A. Corstanje,
  • H. Falcke,
  • Tim Huege,
  • J.R. Horandel,
  • G. K Krampah,
  • P. Mitra,
  • K. Mulrey,
  • Anna Nelles,
  • Hershal Pandya,
  • Jörg P. Rachen,
  • T. N Trinh,
  • Sander ter Veen,
  • S. thoudam,
  • T. Winchen
João Machado
University of Brasilia

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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O. Scholten
University of Groningen
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Brian Hare
University of Groningen
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S. Buitink
Vrije Universiteit Brussels
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A. Corstanje
Radbound University Nijmegen
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H. Falcke
IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen,
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Tim Huege
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
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J.R. Horandel
Radbound Universiteit Nijmegen
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G. K Krampah
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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P. Mitra
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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K. Mulrey
Vrije University Brussels
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Anna Nelles
University of Erlangen
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Hershal Pandya
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Jörg P. Rachen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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T. N Trinh
Can Tho University
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Sander ter Veen
ASTRON
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T. Winchen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Abstract

When a lightning flash is propagating in the atmosphere it is known that especially the negative leaders emit a large number of Very High Frequency (VHF) radio pulses. It is thought that this is due to streamer activity at the tip of the growing negative leader.
In this work we have investigated the dependence of the strength of this VHF emission on the altitude of the negative leader as observed by the LOFAR radio telescope.
We find that the extracted amplitude distributions are consistent with a power-law, and that the amplitude of the radio emissions decreases very strongly with source altitude, by about a factor of 2 from 1~km altitude up to 5~km altitude. In addition, we do not find any dependence on the extracted power-law with altitude, and that the extracted power-law slope has an average around 3.
Apr 2022Published in Earth and Space Science volume 9 issue 4. 10.1029/2021EA001958