Speaker
Description
The Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) are hybrid atmosphere-space plasmas that directly couple the Troposphere with the Ionosphere. They are transient and weakly ionized, with low-light level optical emissions (~kR- few MR), therefore observable only at night. They are excited in the upper atmosphere above thunderstorms by lightning discharges electromagnetic fields. These short plasmas (µs – few 100’s ms) span the whole region from ~20-110 km, piercing the bottom of the nighttime Ionosphere. The main TLE types currently known are sprites, halos, blue jets, gigantic jets and elves. High Energy Emissions from Thunderstorms (HEETs), whose hard radiation species measured up to date are X-Rays, ϒ-Rays, electrons, positrons and neutrons, may couple the Troposphere directly with the Magnetosphere. HEET were initially believed to be generated by sprites, however, current theories suggest, for example, that Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs), discovered using NASA’s astrophysical satellite Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, initiate inside the thunderstorm at ~11-15 km altitude, in association with lightning. Their energies (~20 keV-100 MeV) are comparable to astrophysical Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), e.g. emitted when a star goes supernova. These two classes of phenomena compose the EFfects SignAlIng the ElectRodynamic CouplIng between the AtmospherE and Space (FAIRIES). This talk will review the currently known FAIRIES.