EGU23-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2026
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Worldwide distributions and key properties of Blue LUminous Events (BLUEs) as detected by ASIM

Francisco J. Gordillo-Vazquez1, Sergio Soler1, Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón1, Alejandro Luque1, Dongshuai Li2, Torsten Neubert2, Olivier Chanrion2, Victor Reglero3, Javier Pérez-Navarro3, and Nikolai Ostgaard4
Francisco J. Gordillo-Vazquez et al.
  • 1Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA - CSIC), Solar System, Granada, Spain (vazquez@iaa.es)
  • 2National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Space), Denmark
  • 3Image Processing Laboratory, University of Valencia, Spain
  • 4Department of Physics and Technology, Birkeland Centre for Space Science, University of Bergen, Norway

The presence of transient corona discharges occurring in thunderclouds has been suspected for a long time. Thunderstorm coronas can be observed as Blue LUminous Events (BLUEs) formed by a large number of streamers characterized by their distinct 337 nm light flashes with negligible (or absent) 777.4 nm optical emission (typical of lightning leaders). The Modular Multispectral Imaging Array (MMIA) of the Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) has successfully allowed us to map and characterize BLUEs worldwide. The results presented here include a global analysis of key properties of BLUEs such as their characteristic rise times and duration, their depth with respect to cloud tops, vertical length and number of streamers. We present two different global annual average climatologies of BLUEs depending on considerations about the rise time and total duration of BLUEs worldwide [1-3].

We found that around 10 % of all detected BLUEs exhibit an impulsive single pulse 337 nm light curve shape. The rest of BLUEs are unclear (impulsive or not) single, multiple or with ambiguous pulse shapes. BLUEs exhibit two distinct populations with peak power density < 25 μWm−2 (common) and ≥ 25 μWm−2 (rare) with different rise times and durations. The altitude (and depth below cloud tops) zonal distribution of impulsive single pulse BLUEs indicate that they are commonly present between cloud tops and a depth of ≤ 4 km in the tropics and ≤ 1 km in mid and higher latitudes. Impulsive single pulse BLUEs in the tropics are the longest (up to about 4 km height) and have the largest number of streamers (up to approximately 3 × 109).

 

[1] S. Soler, F. J. Pérez-Invernón, F. J. Gordillo-Vázquez, A. Luque, D. Li, A. Malagón-Romero, T. Neubert, O. Chanrion, V. Reglero, J. Navarro-González, G. Lu, H. Zhang, A. Huang, N. Ostgaard.: "Blue optical observations of narrow bipolar events by ASIM suggest corona streamer activity in thunderstorms" (Editor's Hightlight), Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, vol. 125, 2020, doi: 10.1029/2020JD032708.

[2] S. Soler, F. J. Gordillo-Vázquez, F. J. Pérez-Invernón, A. Luque, D. Li, T. Neubert, O. Chanrion, V. Reglero, J. Navarro-González, N. Ostgaard.: "Global Frequency and Geographical Distribution of Nighttime Streamer Corona Discharges (BLUEs) in Thunderclouds", Geophysical Research Letters 2021, 48, doi: 10.1029/2021GL094657.

[3] S. Soler, F. J. Gordillo‐Vázquez, F. J. Pérez‐Invernón, A. Luque, D. Li, T. Neubert, O. Chanrion, V. Reglero, J. Navarro-González, N. Østgaard.: "Global distribution of key features of streamer corona discharges in thunderclouds". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, vol. 127, 2022, doi: 10.1029/2022JD037535.

How to cite: Gordillo-Vazquez, F. J., Soler, S., Pérez-Invernón, F. J., Luque, A., Li, D., Neubert, T., Chanrion, O., Reglero, V., Pérez-Navarro, J., and Ostgaard, N.: Worldwide distributions and key properties of Blue LUminous Events (BLUEs) as detected by ASIM, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2026, 2023.