Atmospheric Electricity - Ultra and Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields - page 95

we shall study a model of the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide which makes it possible
to calculate the ULF/ELF spectrum B .!/ caused by the lightning discharge and
sprite. Comparing the calculated power spectrum with the observation data permits
us to find the sprite charge moment, the time lag of the sprite current and other
parameters (Surkov et al. 2010 ). The ULF/ELF measurements thus provide with
important information that will assist us in understanding the role played by long-
lasting CC and IC processes in the delayed sprite generation.
In conclusion we note that despite much progress toward a comprehension of
underlying mechanisms for recently discovered TLEs, the analytical theory of these
phenomena is still far from accurate. The numerical modeling continues to be a
basic instrument for theoretical study of TLEs behavior except for simple estimates
which follow from the similarity law. This approach leaves unexplained why the
charge moment change of the causative C CG must be greater than 500 C km to
produce sprites (Stanley et al. 2000 ; Cummer 2003 ; Rycroft 2006 ). Moreover the
relationship between the sprite structure and meteorological conditions, the effect
of IC lightning activity, and etc. are far from being well understood. There are a lot
of such problems to be solved.
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