The altitude of sprites observed over South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMashao, D
dc.contributor.authorKosch, MJ
dc.contributor.authorBór, J
dc.contributor.authorNnadih, O
dc.date.accessioned2022-08-03T20:53:54Z
dc.date.available2022-08-03T20:53:54Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractSprites are mesospheric optical emissions that are mostly produced by large, positive cloud-to-ground lightning discharges. Sprites appear in different morphologies such as carrot, jellyfish and column, and are typically in the altitude range of ~40–100 km above the Earth’s surface. Sprites are a subset of transient luminous events and they contribute to the global electric circuit. South Africa has large convective thunderstorms, which typically occur in the summer months of every year. Peak current, time and geographical position of lightning strokes were obtained from the South African Weather Service. Sprite observations were recorded in South Africa for the first time on 11 January 2016 from Sutherland in the Northern Cape using a night-vision television camera from the South African National Space Agency’s Optical Space Research laboratory. We report the first estimates of the top altitude, and the altitude of maximum brightness, of 48 sprites over South Africa. We found that the average top altitude and the altitude of maximum brightness of sprites are approximately 84.3 km and 69 km, respectively, which is consistent with estimates made elsewhere. We also found a moderately high positive and a weak positive correlation between the top altitude and the altitude of maximum brightness, respectively, of sprites and the lightning stroke charge moment change.en_US
dc.identifier.citationMashao, Dakalo & Kosch, Michael & Bór, József & Nnadih, Ogechukwu. (2021). The altitude of sprites observed over South Africa. South African Journal of Science. 117. 10.17159/sajs.2021/7941.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0038-2353
dc.identifier.issn1996-7489
dc.identifier.uri10.17159/sajs.2021/7941
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/7671
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherAcademy of Science of South Africaen_US
dc.subjectaltitude of spritesen_US
dc.subjectobserveden_US
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_US
dc.subjectmesosphericen_US
dc.subjectoptical emissionsen_US
dc.titleThe altitude of sprites observed over South Africaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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