Similarity analysis of the streamer zone of Blue jets

Abstract

Multiple observations of Blue Jets (BJ) and Gigantic Blue Jets (GBJ) show that BJ and GBJ emits a fan of streamers similar to a laboratory leader. Moreover, in the exponential atmosphere those long streamers grow preferentially upward, producing a narrow cone confined by the aperture angle. It was also noticed that BJ are similar to the streamer zone of a leader (streamer corona) and the modeling studies based on the streamers fractal structure were conducted. Objective of this paper is to study the fractal dimension of the bunch of streamer channels emitted by BJ and GBJ, at different altitude and under the varying electric field. This similarity analysis has been done in three steps: first we described the dendritic structure of streamers in corona discharge applying the fractal theory. Then using this model and the data from existing laboratory experiments we obtained the fractal dimension of the branching streamer channels. Finally the model was validated by the observations of BJ available from the literature.