BLUE STARTERS - BRIEF UPWARD DISCHARGES FROM AN INTENSE ARKANSAS THUNDERSTORM

This paper documents the first observations of a new stratospheric ele ctrical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms. On the night of 30 J une (UT 1 July) 1994, 30 examples of these events, which we have calle d ''blue starters,'' were observed in a 6 m 44 s interval above the ve ry energetic Arkansas thunderstorm where blue jets were first observed . The blue starters are distinguished from blue jets by a much lower t erminal altitude. They are bright and blue in color, and protrude upwa rd from the cloud top (17-18 km) to a maximum 25.5 km (83,655 ft.) in altitude. All blue starters events were recorded from two small areas near Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas where hail 7.0 cm in diameter was falli ng. Comparison to cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes revealed: 1. Blue starters were not observed to be coincident with either positive or negative CG flashes, but they do occur in the same general area as negative CG flashes; 2. Cumulative distributions of the negative CG fl ashes in +/- 5 s before and after the starter and within a radius of 5 0 km shows a significant reduction for about 3 s following the event i n the two cells where starters and jets were observed. The energy defi cit is approximately 10(9) J. It is possible that blue starters are a short-lived streamer phenomenon.