Высота, км - Altitude, km
Ионосфера - Ionosphere
Мезосфера - Mesosphere
Стратосфера - Stratosphere
Тропосфера - Troposphere
Эльфы - Elves
Спрайты - Sprites
Усики - Tendrils
Чрезвычайно мощный грозовой разряд в направлении снизу вверх - Extremely powerful lightning discharge in upward direction
Обычно разряд “облако-воздух” - Typical cloud-to-air discharge
Синие джеты - Blue Jets
Область в атмосферном слое - Area in the atmospheric layer
Отрицательно заряженная вспышка “облако-земля” вблизи конвекционного ядра - Negatively charged "cloud-to-ground" flash near the convection core
Положительно заряженная вспышка “облако-земля” с “паукообразной молнией” - A positively charged cloud-to-ground flash with "spider lightning"
Расстояние, км - Distance, km
This material is the 5th publication from the series of articles by Eduard Meerovich Bazelyan "What is there, in the clouds?".
In this chapter, we can only talk about aircrafts, because Jets can not get to the ground structures. Reader can predict the author’s point of view without further reading. If we identify a Jet with the ascending lightning, penetrated above thunderstorm cloudiness, then the danger of its impact should be considered far-fetched. The results of detailed studies of field ascending discharges from high-rise ground structures and trigger lightning during rocket sounding serve as the basis for this. Such discharges do not have the main stage, during which their channels could rapidly lose the charge (in 1 – 10 μs), thus exciting a current wave with an amplitude of tens to hundreds of kiloamperes. As for the current in the process of forming the ascending leader, its magnitude is approximately 3 ranks less than that indicated above.
Current in the channel of a real blue jet can only be estimated by the indirect method, registering its electromagnetic low-frequency radiation in the far away area. As a rule, the obtained current values, do not exceed 100 A. Therefore, it is needless to talk about the danger of contact between the Jet channel and the aircraft. By analogy with the ascending lightning, the Reader can recall the repeated components, which, using the already formed channel, propagate from the cloud to the ground, ultimately forming the main stage, with a sufficiently large pulse current. Fortunately, nothing similar was observed in jets.
Conclusion
Very little can be concluded, in case of interest in high-altitude discharges in applied terms, paying attention only to their danger to modern technical objects. Is it beautiful? – Yes, definitely!
This is the fifth part of the articles' series "What is there, in the clouds?". To read the full material, you must register on the site.