We report a new approach to measure indirectly the ambient thunderstorm electric fields in fast positive breakdown regions. For a given geometry of the discharged fast breakdown region, we show that there is a minimum ambient electric field required to produce a given charge moment change. We apply this approach to the fast breakdown measurements for two events reported by Rison et al. (2016,
Fast breakdown (FB), a breakdown process composed of systems of high‐velocity streamers, has been observed to precede lightning leader formation and play a critical role in lightning initiation. Vigorous FB events are responsible for the most powerful natural radio emissions on Earth, known as narrow bipolar events (NBEs). In this paper, an improved version of the Griffiths and Phelps (1976,
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10369251
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Volume:
- 126
- Issue:
- 19
- ISSN:
- 2169-897X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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