K. B. Eack

Energetic radiation associated with lightning stepped‐leaders

With the use of a NaI scintillation detector, bursts of radiation with energies in excess of 1 MeV were recorded at a mountain-top observatory immediately before three, nearby cloud-to-ground, negative lightning strikes. Coincident recordings of the electric field changes due to the discharges showed that, in each case, the bursts began between 1 and 2 milliseconds before and continued until the onset of the first return stroke. This radiation was associated with approaching stepped-leaders and may have influenced their development.

Photographic observations of streamers and steps in a cloud‐to‐air negative leader

A color photograph has been obtained of a negative lightning leader in clear air at 10.3 km altitude. The individual leader steps are resolved as relatively straight segments of at least ~200 m in length, between sharp kinks (nodes) in the channel. Each node is accompanied by a group of streamers of ~100 m in length. One node has an unconnected secondary leader with streamers at both ends. Lightning Mapping Array observations show that the leader was part of an intracloud (IC) flash. The observation shows that steps of negative leaders near 10 km altitude are an order of magnitude longer than values reported in the literature for negative leaders near sea level. Since negative leaders propagate at comparable velocities at low and high altitudes, stepping occurs at a lower rate in IC flashes, which can explain why RF emissions from IC flashes are more intermittent than those from cloud-to-ground flashes.

Long‐duration X‐ray emissions observed in thunderstorms

In 1995, a series of four balloon flights with an X-ray spectrometer and an electric field meter were conducted to examine if strong electric fields could accelerate, and perhaps multiply, cosmic ray secondary electrons and produce bremsstrahlung X-rays. X-ray intensities between 10 and 1000 times that of normal background were observed in conjunction with strong electric fields. Both negative and positive polarity electric fields (as referenced to the vertical field) produced X-rays, which lasted for time scales on the order of tens of seconds. It was also observed that the increased X-ray intensity would return to near background levels after lightning reduced the local electric field. The observations indicate that X-rays observed above background are most likely produced by a runaway electron process occurring in the strong static electric field present in thunderstorms. The production of runaway electrons can occur over long periods of time without causing an electrical breakdown. This may provide a leakage current that limits the large scale electric field to values near the runaway threshold, especially in regions where the thunderstorm charging rate is low.