"Sprites, Elves and Intense Lightning Discharges"

Particularly intense lightning discharges can produce transient luminous events above thunderclouds, termed sprites, elves and jets. These short lived optical emissions in the mesosphere can reach from the tops of thunderclouds up to the ionosphere; they provide direct evidence of coupling from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere. Sprites are arguably the most dramatic recent discovery in solar-terrestrial physics. Shortly after the first ground based video recordings of sprites, observations on board the Space Shuttle detected sprites and elves occurring all around the world. These reports led to detailed sprite observations in North America, South America, Australia, Japan, and Europe. Subsequently, sprites were detected from other space platforms such as the International Space Station and the ROCSAT satellite. During the past 15 years, more than 200 contributions on sprites have been published in the scientific literature to document this rapidly evolving new research area.

Introduction to the Physics of Sprites, Elves and Intense Lightning Discharges. - The Meteorology of Transient Luminous an Introduction and Overview. - The Microphysical and Electrical Properties of Sprite-Producing Thunderstorms. - Global Thunderstorm Activity. - Imaging Systems in the Research. - Spacecraft Based Studies of Transient Luminous Events. - Observations of Sprites From Space at the Nadir: The LSO (Lightning and Sprite Observations) Experiment on Board of the International Space Station. - Remote Sensing of the Upper Atmosphere by VLF. - Measurements of Lightning Parameters from Remote Electromagnetic Fields. - Location and Electrical Properties of Sprite-Producing Lightning from a single Elf Site. - Calibrated Radiance Measurements with an Air-Filled Glow Discharge Tube: Application to Sprites in the Mesosphere. - Theoretical Modeling of Sprites and Jets. - On the Modeling of Sprites and Sprite Producing Clouds in the Global Electric Circuit. - Actual Problems of Thundercloud Electrodynamics. - Poster Abstracts. - Index.