Analysis of Step-Wise Leader Extensions in Cloud to Ground Lightning Discharges — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Analysis of Step-Wise Leader Extensions in Cloud to Ground Lightning Discharges

Name: Chad Kelterborn
Major: French, Math, Physics
Hometown: Northville, Mich.
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

While we have the general understanding of how lightning charges the Earth by carrying negative charges from the atmosphere to the ground, we do not understand the process of how the lightning channel works. For our analysis we sought to infer the relation between the initial impulsive step-wise extensions of the lightning channel and the physical properties of the lightning channel. We analyzed data produced by these impulsive step-wise extensions from a thunderstorm collected by the Huntsville Alabama Marx Meter Array (HAMMA). For our study, we were interested in the characteristics (namely the frequency, amplitude and duration) of the high frequency pulses which are associated with the step extensions of a lightning channel. We found that larger pulses and pulses of greater duration were more likely to occur earlier in the discharge process. Additionally, we found that pulses were more frequent when the background current was the greatest. Our results suggest that we can use the pulse structure to infer the physical properties of the developing lightning channel.

Poster file