Apokamp discharge as a laboratory analogue of the transient luminous events of middle atmosphere

Abstract

The paper demonstrates the possibility of studying blue jets in laboratory apokamp discharges as a source of blue streamers that move upward from the discharge channel. Research data are presented on the formation of such streamers in low-pressure air at a voltage of tens of kilovolts, showing for the first time that they do arise at low (∼8 Hz) pulse repetition frequencies under pressures at which gigantic blue jets develop 10–20 km above the Earth. At a voltage of positive polarity with an amplitude of 33 kV, the streamer velocity in a pulsed apokamp discharge reaches 560 km/s. When applying microsecond voltage pulses of amplitude 15 kV with a repetition frequency of 50 kHz, the length of streamers ranges to more than 120 cm.