Preliminary Optical And Electric Field Pulse Statistics From Storm Overflights During The Altus Cumulus Electrification Study

The Altus Cumulus Electrification Study (ACES) was conducted during the month of August, 2002 in an area near Key West, Florida. One of the goals of this uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) study was to collect high resolution optical pulse and electric field data from thunderstorms. During the month long campaign, we acquired 5294 lightning generated optical pulses with associated electric field changes. Most of these observations were made while close to the top of the storms. We found filtered mean and median 10-10% optical pulse widths of 875 and 830 microns respectively while the 50-50% mean and median optical pulse widths are 422 and 365 microns respectively. These values are similar to previous results as are the 10-90% mean and median rise times of 327 and 265 microns. The peak electrical to optical pulse delay mean and median were 209 and 145 microns which is longer than one would expect from theoretical results. The results of the pulse analysis will contribute to further validation of the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) satellites. Pre-launch estimates of the flash detection efficiency were based on a small sample of optical pulse measurements associated with less than 350 lightning discharges collected by NASA U-2 aircraft in the early 1980s. Preliminary analyses of the ACES measurements show that we have greatly increased the number of optical pulses available for validation of the LIS and other orbital lightning optical sensors. Since the Altus was often close to the cloud tops, many of the optical pulses are from low-energy pulses. From these low-energy pulses, we can determine the fraction of optical lightning pulses below the thresholds of LIS, OTD, and any future satellite-based optical sensors such as the geostationary Lightning Mapping Sensor.