STEPS 2000 JD 00186 04JULY2000

The following is the final listing of the times of sprites imaged at the Yucca Ridge Field Station. These are on visual inspection of the LLTV video monitoring system. All times are UTC. The times refer to the start of the 17 ms field in which the TLE was first visible.

SUMMARY: Full Operations. Storms formed as predicted in sw Kansas and central Nebraska. Skies so clear at sunset could easily see tops at 450+ km range. Very high surface dewpoints and huge CAPES allowed both multicellular convective systems to spawn considerable severe weather (hail, TVS, mesos, tops to 650). The northern, stronger system built southwest and gradually merged with the southern system. The tops were very cold, with large areas under –75C. However, the sprites were relatively muted for large systems. The NE system sprited for a while, with nothing from KS. Then KS took over, and then off and on sprites after the merger. The fact that the percent positives were consistently under 10% and that the convective regions were quite a large percent of the total storm may be a factor. Some were visible to the naked eye however. Excellent gravity wave images were obtained. A number of Stanford telescope views obtained. Tried the GEN III with the 500 mm lens. USU obtained some GEN III blue filtered sprite shots (0552.05). Low clouds redeveloped causing loss of viewing so shut down was at 0815.

Smoke from Craig fire seen layered to northwest, but did not appear to affect storms.

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(S) = Sprite; (E) = Elve; (B) = Blue Jet; (CF/CG) = Cloud/Ground flash; (M)=Meteor

ON 0396 Z

OFF 0815 Z

00-186  

4 July 2000

SPRITE Times

03:29:45.574 [S]

03:29:45.361 [S]

03:40:54.274 [S]

04:04:12.417 [S]

04:10:15.532 [S]

04:16:02.157 [S]

04:19:09.627 [S+]

04:22:09.456 [S]

04:26:12.988 [S]

04:28:14.487 [S]

04:35:00.466 [S]

04:35:37.428 [E]

04:39:23.144 [S]

04:45:32.680 [S]

04:48:14.225 [S]

04:57:01.824 [S]

05:03:36.367 [S]

05:04:21.779 [S]

05:06:17.127 [S]

05:14:31.383 [S]

05:16:08.099 [S+]

05:17:01.266 [S]

05:20:19.783 [S]

05:22:06.288 [S]

05:22:54.638 [S]

05:28:04.413 [S]

05:32:13.243 [S]

05:33:07.664 [S]

05:36:28.181 [S]

05:38:51.957 [S]

05:42:57.668 [S]

05:44:15.312 [S]

05:45:32.122 [S]

05:47:04.214 [S]

05:47:43.486 [S]

05:52:05.113 [S]

06:10:28.500 [S]

06:12:24.008 [S]

06:12:46.054 [S]

06:27:21.077 [S]

06:32:47.302 [S-]

06:35:35.503 [S]

06:40:36.125 [S]

06:40:36.420 [S]

06:40:36.670 [S]

06:45:21.905 [S]

06:45:22.510 [S]

06:49:02.241 [S]

06:58:20.567 [S]

07:06:01.091 [S]

07:08:35.429 [S]

07:11:00.690 [S]

07:11:03.776 [S]

07:17:59.289 [S]

07:19:01.420 [E]

07:19:01.435 [S]

07:20:51.027 [S]

07:21:38.507 [SE]

07:22:05.117 [S]

07:25:13.004 [S]

07:30:27.988 [S]

07:33:11.280 [S]

07:35:04.075 [S]

07:37:13.637 [S-]