Six‐Component Electromagnetic Wave Measurements of Sprite‐Associated Lightning

Füllekrug, Martin and Kosch, Michael and Dingley, Gavin and Bai, Xue and Macotela, Liliana (2026) Six‐Component Electromagnetic Wave Measurements of Sprite‐Associated Lightning. Radio Science, 61 (2): e2025RS008. ISSN 0048-6604

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Abstract

Plain Language Summary: Sprites are Transient Luminous Events above thunderclouds that tend to occur after intense lightning activity. The lightning emits electromagnetic waves that can be recorded hundreds of kilometres away. The electromagnetic waves are composed out of six different components. Here we report for the first time the simultaneous measurement of all six components. It is found that all the six components are well related to each other with very high precision. For the deployment of arrays with a large number of measurement instruments, it is therefore possible to choose horizontal electric field measurements which are cost‐effective and logistically convenient, in particular in harsh environments. At the same time, such array experiments can be used as a pathfinder mission for the planned deployment of an astronomical array on the far side of the moon to detect celestial objects which cannot be measured at the surface of the Earth.