Self-Consistent Model of a Night Sprite

Abstract

We propose a radially symmetric self-consistent model of a sprite at altitudes of 60 to 90 km in the region with a radius of 60 km. The perturbations of the densities of ions, electrons, and neutral particles, as well as the photon-emission intensities at the mesospheric altitudes are analyzed with respect to the sprite under night-time conditions. Because of the fast electric-field displacement in the upper part of the diffuse region of the sprite at altitudes of 78 to 81 km, radiation at the discharge axis stops earlier than that in the outer region, i.e., the toroidal structures of the electric field and the sprite radiation are observed. At altitudes of 83 to 87 km, the electrondensity decrease related to the increasing role of the dissociative attachment to molecular oxygen occurs, which significantly decreases conductivity at these altitudes.