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Ann. Geophys., 24, 2921-2929, 2006
www.ann-geophys.net/24/2921/2006/
© European Geosciences Union 2006
Assigning the causative lightning to the whistlers observed on satellites
J. Chum1, F. Jiricek1, O. Santolik1,2, M. Parrot3, G. Diendorfer4, and J. Fiser1
1Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Bocni II/1401, 14131 Prague, Czech Republic
2Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, V Holesovickach 2, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic
3LPCE/CNRS, 3A Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orléans, France
4Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE-ALDIS), Kahlenberger Str. 2A, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Abstract. We study the penetration of lightning induced whistler waves through the
ionosphere by investigating the correspondence between the whistlers observed
on the DEMETER and MAGION-5 satellites and the lightning discharges detected
by the European lightning detection network EUCLID. We compute all the
possible differences between the times when the whistlers were observed on
the satellite and times when the lightning discharges were detected. We show
that the occurrence histogram for these time differences exhibits a distinct
peak for a particular characteristic time, corresponding to the sum of
the propagation time and a possible small time shift between the absolute time
assigned to the wave record and the clock of the lightning detection
network. Knowing this characteristic time, we can search in the EUCLID
database for locations, currents, and polarities of causative lightning
discharges corresponding to the individual whistlers. We demonstrate that
the area in the ionosphere through which the electromagnetic energy induced
by a lightning discharge enters into the magnetosphere as whistler mode
waves is up to several thousands of kilometres wide.
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