SPRITES 99 YUCCA RIDGE FIELD STATION
FMA Research
JD 99221 09 AUGUST 1999
PRELIMINARY SPRITE LOG
The following is a very preliminary listing of the times of sprites imaged at the
Yucca Ridge Field Station. These are based solely on real-time visual inspection of
the video monitoring system. There are most likely some additional sprites not listed
and not all those below may in fact be sprites. All times are UTC. Times are likely
to be within ±5 seconds of actual time.
SUMMARY: Convection remained muted over the High Plains. There were excellent
viewing conditions at all three sites. The balloon mission was scrubbed due to high
surface winds. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for ND, and a few intense storms
did develop. The cells had reflectivities above 60 dBZ and percent positive rates above
60%. The excellent viewing allowed Tohuku to image elves at ranges beyond 850 km in ND
and at least one sprite which came from below the horizon. A second MCS in Texas was
large enough to produce some sprites. Yucca Ridge could not view this storm as it was
blocked by small MCS south of Denver (which were monitored as a null case). Jelm did
report seeing some sprites from the Texas storm. The MM5 mesoscale forecast model ran
successfully at FMA.
(S) = Sprite; (E) = Elve; (B) = Blue Jet; (CF/CG) = Cloud/Ground flash; (M)=Meteor
JD 99221 09 AUGUST 1999
0500. Start LLTV Observations by Tohoku od ND storm
0608.46 [E]
0611.52 [E]
0612.50 [E]
0621.40 [E]
0626.36 [E]
0631.59 [E]
0632.39 [E]
0726.57 [E]
0738.27 [E]
0742.37 [E]
0745.33 [E]
0802.09.78 [S]
UofA at Jelm reported sprites with Texas system
End LLTV Observations