High resolution observation on rocket-triggered lightning

The SHandong Artificially Triggering Lightning Experiment (SHATLE), aimed to understand the close electromagnetic environment of lightning channel and its correlation to the discharge current, and the lightning effects on the ground objectives, has been carried out continuously since the summer of 2005. A total of 26 negative lightning flashes, containing 104 negative return strokes were triggered from 2005 to 2013 with either classical or altitude triggering technique. The current of the flash was measured at the bottom of the 5-m-high triggering facility using a current monitor with a bandwidth of 0.9 Hz-1.5 MHz and a 0.5 mΩ-shunt with bandwidth of 0-3.2 MHz. Optical images of the triggered-lightning was detected with Photron FASTCAM SA1 camera operated at 10,000 fps with a corresponding spatial resolution of 576×832 pixels. A short-baseline VHF lightning location system based on time-difference of arrival (TDOA) are developed for depicting the evolution of lightning channels with high time-resolution in 2 dimensions both outside and inside the cloud. The electromagnetic field was detected at different distances by using slow and fast antenna and magnetic field sensors. This paper reviews the observation and main results in SHATLE.