Analysis of UV flashes of millisecond scale detected by a low-orbit satellite

Abstract

The microsatellite Tatiana recently detected two scales of the UV flash duration: 1-4 ms and 10-64 ms. This paper studies the atmospheric electricity phenomena that can serve as a source for short-millisecond-range flashes. It is shown that UV flashes in the millisecond scale detected by Tatiana may be explained as generated by gigantic blue jets (GBJ). The influence of an assumed self-consistent governing electric field in the GBJ streamer zone on the UV pulse shape and duration is revealed. It is also shown that red sprites can be a source for UV flashes with similar temporal profiles but at much lower intensity. The model results are also compared with the observations made by the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightnings imager on board the FORMOSAT-2 satellite. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.