A study of changes in apparent ionospheric reflection height within individual lightning flashes

Abstract

Ionospheric reflection heights estimated using the zero-to-zero and peak-to-peak methods to measure skywave delay relative to the ground wave were compared for 108 first and 124 subsequent strokes at distances greater than 100km. For either metric there was a considerable decrease in average reflection height for subsequent strokes relative to first strokes. We showed that the observed difference cannot be explained by the difference in frequency content of first and subsequent return-stroke currents. Apparent changes in reflection height (estimated using the peak-to-peak method) within individual flashes for 54 daytime and 11 nighttime events at distances ranging from 50km to 330km were compared, and significant differences were found. For daytime conditions, the majority of the flashes showed either decrease (57%) or non-monotonic variation (39%) in reflection height with respect to the immediately preceding stroke. With respect to the first stroke, 91% of the flashes showed monotonic decrease in height. For nighttime flashes, patterns in reflection height changes with respect to the immediately preceding stroke were as follows: 46% no change, 27% monotonic decrease, and 27% non-monotonic variation. When changes were measured with respect to the first stroke, 54% of nighttime flashes showed monotonic decrease and 46% no change. Ionospheric reflection height tends to increase with return-stroke peak current. The observed daytime effects can be explained by (a) the dependence of EMP penetration depth on source intensity, which decreases with stroke order, (b) additional ionization associated with elves, or (c) combination of (a) and (b) above.