A Strong Pulsing Nature of Negative Intracloud Dart Leaders Accompanied by Regular Trains of Microsecond‐Scale Pulses

Abstract

Abstract We report the first observations of negative intracloud (IC) dart‐stepped leaders accompanied by regular trains of microsecond‐scale pulses, simultaneously detected by shielded broadband magnetic loop antennas and the radio telescope Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). Four investigated pulse trains occurred during complicated IC flashes on 18 June 2021, when heavy thunderstorms hit the Netherlands. The pulses within the trains are unipolar, a few microseconds wide, and with an average inter‐pulse interval of 5–7 μs. The broadband pulses perfectly match energetic, regularly distributed, and relatively isolated bursts of very high frequency sources localized by LOFAR. All trains were generated by negative dart‐stepped leaders propagating at a lower speed than usual dart leaders. They followed channels of previous leaders occurring within the same flash several tens of milliseconds before the reported observations. The physical mechanism remains unclear as to why we observe dart‐stepped leaders, which show mostly regular stepping, emitting energetic microsecond‐scale pulses.

Keywords

• lightning
• dart‐stepped leader
• pulse train