A model of sprite influence on the chemical balance of mesosphere

Abstract

We have developed a new plasma-chemical model which describes perturbation dynamics of the chemical composition of the mesosphere at altitudes between 60 and 90. km due to sprite generation for night conditions, and apply it for the self-consistent 1D modeling of the perturbation region. As a first stage, we choose a set of chemical reactions and verify it with point-model runs for 75 and 85. km. As a second stage, we apply this set of reactions to a study of the vertical distribution of chemical species using a simple electric field representation, where the electric field is related to the flash current and depends on the conductivity perturbation. The perturbed concentrations of electrons, neutrals, ions, cluster ions, excited atoms, and molecules have been estimated for typical flash parameters as altitude dependent. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.