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In this paper, a full-wave two-dimensional Finite-Difference-Time-Domain model is developed to evaluate the propagation effects of lightning electromagnetic fields over mountainous terrain in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. In the model, we investigate the effect of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide structure and medium parameters, including the effect of the ionospheric cold plasma characteristics, the effect of the Earth curvature, and the propagation effects over mountainous terrain. For the first time, the obtained results are validated against simultaneous experimental data consisting of lightning currents measured at the Säntis Tower and electric fields measured in Neudorf, Austria, located at 380-km distance from the tower. It is shown that both the time delays and amplitudes of the lightning electromagnetic fields at 380-km distance can be strongly affected by the ionospheric electron density profile, the mountainous terrain, and the Earth curvature. After taking into account the effect of the irregular terrain between the Säntis Tower and the field measurement station, the vertical electric fields calculated by using our model are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding measured cases occurred in both daytime and nighttime. The ideal approximation used in either the classical solutions or the simplified models might lead to inaccuracies in the estimated reflection height. Furthermore, we discuss the sensitivity of our results by considering different return stroke models, as well as different typical values of the return stroke speed and of the ground conductivity. © 2019. The Authors.

In this paper, we present and discuss simultaneous records of current and wideband electric field waveforms at 380 km distance from the strike point associated with an upward bipolar flash initiated from the Säntis Tower. The flash contains 23 negative strokes and one positive stroke. The intervals between the groundwave and skywave arrival times are used to estimate ionospheric reflection heights for the negative return strokes using the so-called zero-to-zero and peak-to-peak methods. A full-wave, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) analysis of the electric field propagation including the effect of the ionospheric reflections is also presented. FDTD simulation results are compared with the measured radiated electric field associated with the studied flash to evaluate the reference reflection height of the conductivity profile. It is also found that the ratio of the peak field to the current peak is about two times smaller for the positive pulse compared to negative pulses. This difference in the amplitudes can be attributed to a lower return stroke speed for the positive stroke compared to that for negative strokes, and also to the fact that the enhancement of the electric field due to the presence of the tower and the mountain might be more significant for negative pulses, which are characterized by faster risetimes compared to the positive one.© 2019

Meteorological parameters associated with the initiation of upward lightning discharges from a tall tower were investigated. The parameters, including temperature, wind speed, air pressure, and relative humidity, were measured at the Gaisberg Tower top and at a distance of 170 m from the tower. A comparison of parameters associated with self-initiated upward flashes (initiated without any nearby preceding lightning activity) and nearby-lightning-triggered upward flashes (triggered by nearby preceding lightning activity) was made. It shows that at the Gaisberg Tower (GBT), relatively low ambient temperature facilitates to initiate upward flashes without any nearby preceding lightning activity. Relatively high ambient temperature (8.5 °C to 15.5 °C) facilitates to initiate upward positive stepped leaders, rather than the common continuous leaders, in the self-initiated upward negative flashes. No reliable correlation between wind speed and upward initiation of lightning was found., QC 20150608

We calculate vertical electric field and azimuthal magnetic field at different elevation angles and distances associated with lightning strikes a tall object. Simple and exact expressions for electromagnetic fields are derived when the current reflection coefficient at tall object top is zero and return stroke propagation speed in the lightning channel is equal to the speed of light. Further, we investigate the effects of current reflection coefficient at tall object top being not zero and the propagation speed is less than the speed of light (e.g., one half) on electromagnetic fields. Interestingly, we find that the vertical electric field has its largest peak value either at the smallest elevation angle or at the largest elevation angle. While for the azimuthal magnetic field, we note that its largest peak value is always at the smallest elevation angle or relatively small elevation angles., QC 20140626

In this paper, we discuss properties of initial continuous current (ICC) pulses superimposed on the slow varying initial stage current in upward flashes initiated from the Gaisberg Tower (GBT) based on simultaneous current, near/far electric field measurements. ICC pulses are usually associated with M-component mode of charge transfer to ground, if only one branch of the lightning channel is active. However, there are several cases in which ICC pulses involve a predominantly leader/return-stroke mode of charge transfer to ground in a new channel that connects to the old channel carrying continuous current. With the help of high-speed video camera records, we find that this mixed mode of charge transfer for ICC pulses, leader-return stroke in one channel and continuous current in another channel, occurring simultaneously during the initial stage current in upward lightning from tall towers is very common. This is in contrast to triggered-lightning where usually only one channel is dominant and ICC pulses are associated predominantly with M-component mode of charge transfer. Also, ICC pulses with mixed-mode of charge transfer have shorter risetimes, larger peaks, and shorter half-peak widths., QC 20120214

We examine in detail the simultaneous lightning current waveforms, close electric field changes, and lighting location system data for upward lightning discharges initiated from the Gaisberg Tower (GBT) from 2005 to 2009. Out of 205 upward flashes, we find that most of upward flashes (179/205 or 87%) are initiated at the tower top without any nearby preceding discharge activity, 26 flashes (13%) are initiated by nearby triggering lightning discharges, including 10 positive cloud-to-ground lightning, 1 negative cloud-to-ground lightning, and 15 cloud discharges. The possible reasons for self-triggered upward flashes dominating at the GBT would be the field enhancement due to the Gaisberg Mountain above 800 m of the surrounding terrain of the city of Salzburg and low cloud base during cold season., QC 20120214

First instrumentation for lightning measurements at the Gaisberg Tower (GBT) has been installed in 1998. During the 10-years period from 2000-2009 a total of 652 lightning events have been recorded. Vast majority of the lightning to the GBT was upward initiated and only one record is a candidate for a downward flash when the recorded current waveform is used for discrimination between upward and downward lightning. 3% (21/652) of the flashes were bipolar and about the same number of 4% (26/652) were positive. 73% of positive and 63% of bipolar lightning was triggered by the GBT during cold season in Austria., QC 20120411

A field mill (FM) has been permanently operated at a distance of about 170m from the Gaisberg Tower (GBT) in Austria since several years. The electric field measurements suffer from field enhancement due to its location on a 4-m tall metal platform near the tower which itself is located on a 1280 meter high mountain. A special measuring campaign was conducted to determine the fair-weather atmospheric electric field at the Gaisberg Mountain on June 24th, 2010. The main objectives of this campaign were to calibrate the field mill in order to infer the relation between the electric fields at the tower tip and the ground level measured by the field mill under thunderstorm conditions. Besides the permanent field mill near the tower, two Campbell Scientific CS100 electric field meters were used during this campaign, and distances between each other were determined by using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Overall we determined an enhancement factor of 2.75 due to the mountain itself with reference to the mountains surrounding terrain. A field enhancement factor of 7.81 was obtained for the permanently installed field mill at the measurement platform next to the GBT with reference to the undisturbed electric field at the mountain top close to the platform at ground level. The electric field near the tower (distances about the tower height of 100 m) was smaller than the field measured at larger distance from the Tower. This observation was possibly caused by a shadowing effect of the tower., QC 20140915

[1] We examine the characteristics of the initial stage (IS) in object-initiated lightning derived from current measurements on the Gaisberg tower ( 100 m, Austria), the Peissenberg tower (160 m, Germany), and the Fukui chimney (200 m, Japan) and their counterparts in rocket-triggered lightning in Florida. All lightning events analyzed here effectively transported negative charge to ground. For rocket-triggered lightning the geometric mean ( GM) values of the three overall characteristics of the initial stage, duration, charge transfer, and average current, are similar to their counterparts for the Gaisberg tower flashes and the Peissenberg tower flashes, while the Fukui chimney flashes are characterized by a shorter GM IS duration and a larger average current. The GM IS charge transfer for the Fukui chimney flashes is similar to that in the other three data sets. The GM values of the action integral differ considerably among the four data sets, with the Fukui action integral being the largest. The observed differences in the IS duration between the Fukui data set and all other data considered here are probably related to the differences in the lower current limits, while the differences in the action integral cannot be explained by the instrumental effects only. There appear to be two types of initial stage in upward lightning. The first type exhibits pulsations ( ringing) during the initial portion of the IS, and the second type does not. The occurrence of these types of IS appears to depend on geographical location. The characteristics of pulses superimposed on the initial continuous current (ICC pulses) in object-initiated ( Gaisberg, Peissenberg, and Fukui) lightning are similar within a factor of 2 but differ more significantly from their counterparts in rocket-triggered lightning. Specifically, the ICC pulses in object-initiated lightning exhibit larger peaks, shorter risetimes, and shorter half-peak widths than do the ICC pulses in rocket-triggered lightning, QC 20120227