Study of Atmospheric Discharges by Near Surface Electric Field Measurements

Background: In this work the disturbances of the near surface electric field are investigated, which are attributed to different types of atmospheric discharges: intracloud or cloud-to-ground. Method: The patterns of the lightning occurrences are discussed as measured by the network of the electric field mills located at the stations of Cosmic Ray Division of Yerevan Physics Institute. Discharges make changes in the near surface electric field, which can be separated into two groups. The differences of those two groups and shapes of the recovery curves are discussed using the data from electric field mills network for a stormy day on May 23, 2015. Conclusion: The results presented in this work show that magnitudes of field changes from one of the groups are larger and have shorter duration compared to another one. Recovery curves of the near surface electric field produced by lightning flashes also have a power-law or a linear dependence besides exponential shape.