EE Colloquia: Lightning Related Transient Luminous Events in the Middle Atmosphere

Abstract: Atmospheric electricity processes at low altitudes in the Earth's atmosphere produce lightning flashes that lead to plasma phenomena with measurable effects through the depth of the atmosphere and beyond. Many of these effects have been discovered during the past three decades and are still poorly understood. Lightning can create strong electromagnetic pulses and quasi-static electric fields inducing gas discharges in the upper atmosphere. The related plasma processes exhibit a bewildering variety of visual forms, which span the full range of altitudes between the tropopause and the ionosphere. For historical reasons, and to avoid inadvertently suggesting unwarranted physical properties before they were known, the luminous optical manifestations of these events are referred to variously as sprites, elves, or blue jets. This talk will provide a brief overview of the history of discovery of different types of these transient luminous events. We will also discuss some of the recent modeling efforts at Penn State directed on understanding of lightning related gas discharges of various forms and, in particular, on interpretation of observed features of the transient luminous events.

Bio:
Victor Pasko is a Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Penn State University. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1996. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Dr. Pasko received Penn State Engineering Alumni Society Outstanding Research Award in 2016. He is a member of IEEE and US Commissions G and H of International Union of Radio Science. From 2005 to 2008 Dr. Pasko served as Chair of AGU Atmospheric and Space Electricity Focus Group. Dr. Pasko served as an Associate Editor of Radio Science (2001-2022) and Journal of Geophysical Research (2005-2022). His research interests include atmospheric electrodynamics and gas discharge phenomena. He has published 128 articles in refereed journals and 3 book chapters.