Study of long duration currents in lightning flashes

• Grant number: 23/03908-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geophysics
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Magalhães Fares Saba
• Grantee: Marcelo Magalhães Fares Saba
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Adonis Ferreira Raiol Leal ; Antonio Carlos Varela Saraiva ; Carina Schumann ; Dr Lukas Schwalt ; Enrique Vieira Mattos ; Hugh Gordon Patrick Hunt ; Istvan Kereszy ; Listz Simões de Araújo ; Miguel de Brito Guimarães Neto ; Rafael Silva Alípio ; Rasha Abbasi
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/15336-6 - Instrumentation, data analysis and publications, BP.TT

Abstract

Cloud-to-ground lightning are responsible for immense material damage and for more than a hundred deaths annually in our country. The lightning flashes that contain currents of long duration, known as continuing currents, produce damage associated with the heating caused by them (burnings, melting of materials, forest fires, damage to transmission lines, etc.). This project aims at the observation and characterization of continuing currents, as well as the characterization of the flashes that contain it and the thunderstorms associated with these flashes. To achieve this objective, in addition to the analysis of the video database obtained by high-speed cameras and electric field data, we intend to carry out new data acquisition that will be complemented by auxiliary sensors (infrared video camera, interferometry, Lightning Mapping Array, electric field sensors, atmospheric electrostatic field sensors, electrical current sensors, photometers, lightning location systems, radar and satellite data). The joint analysis of old and new data from different countries will serve to characterize important parameters of the continuing currents (frequency of occurrence, duration, intensity, etc.) as well as of the flashes that produce it (polarity, multiplicity, etc.) and associated thunderstorms (top height, horizontal extension, stage of development, etc.). This study will be able to better define these parameters and thus help in the validation and improvement of the knowledge used in areas such as: the occurrence of heat damages and fires caused by lightning, the design of lighting protection systems, the estimation of the production of gases that influence the chemistry of the atmosphere, the production of transient luminous events (TLEs), the initiation of upward flashes, etc. (AU)

Scientific publications

(6)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

KIEU, N.; ABBASI, R. U.; SABA, M. M. F.; BELZ, J. W.; KREHBIEL, P. R.; STANLEY, M. A.; GORDILLO-VAZQUEZ, F. J.; PASSAS-VARO, M.; WARNER, T.; RISON, W.; et al. First Time-Resolved Leader Spectra Associated With a Downward Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flash Detected at the Telescope Array Surface Detector. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, v. 129, n. 24, p. 13-pg., 2024-12-28. (23/03908-5, 22/10808-4)

CRUZ, IVAN T.; SABA, MARCELO M. F.; SILVA, JOSE CLAUDIO O.; ABBASI, RASHA U.; HUNT, HUGH G. P.; SCHUMANN, CARINA; DA SILVA, DIEGO R. R.; DA SILVA, TAGIANNE P.; LAURIA, PAOLA B.; KIEU, NY T.. Correlation Between Speed of the Leader and Peak Current of the Return Stroke in Negative Lightning Flashes. Geophysical Research Letters, v. 52, n. 2, p. 9-pg., 2025-01-28. (23/03908-5, 23/15336-6, 22/10808-4)

CRUZ, IVAN T.; SABA, MARCELO M. F.; SILVA, JOSE CLAUDIO O.; SCHUMANN, CARINA. The Role of Secondary Recoil Leaders in the Formation of Subsequent Return Strokes. Geophysical Research Letters, v. 52, n. 2, p. 6-pg., 2025-01-28. (23/03908-5, 12/15375-7, 22/10808-4, 13/05784-0, 23/15336-6)

ABBASI, R. U.; KIEU, N.; KREHBIEL, P. R.; BELZ, J. W.; SABA, M. M. F.; RISON, W.; STANLEY, M. A.; RODEHEFFER, D.; MAZZUCCO, D.; KNIGHT, T.; et al. Intermediate Fluence Downward Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes as Observed by the Telescope Array Surface Detector. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, v. 129, n. 24, p. 15-pg., 2024-12-28. (23/03908-5, 22/10808-4)

GUIMARAES, MIGUEL; ARAUJO, LISTZ; ALIPIO, RAFAEL; TEIXEIRA, KARINE; SABA, MARCELO M. F.; ARCANJO, MARCELO; KERESZY, ISTVAN. Application of the Z-transform on the deconvolution of lightning electric field waveforms obtained from single-station measurements. Electric Power Systems Research, v. 230, p. 7-pg., 2024-02-12. (23/03908-5)

DING, ZIQIN; ZHU, YANAN; LAPIERRE, JEFF; DIGANGI, ELIZABETH; RINGHAUSEN, JACQUELYN; LAURIA, PAOLA B.; SABA, MARCELO M. F.; RAKOV, VLADIMIR A.; ABBASI, RASHA U.; DA SILVA, DIEGO R. R.; et al. Continuing Current Seen Above and Below the Cloud: Comparing Observations From GLM and High-Speed Video Cameras. Geophysical Research Letters, v. 51, n. 15, p. 9-pg., 2024-08-16. (23/03908-5)