Dr. Andrea Kolinska

This study presents a detailed analysis of multiple lightning flashes detected over Europe in the time period from 2020 to 2023, with a specific focus on the preliminary breakdown stage (PB). By integrating data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and ground-based magnetic measurements from the Shielded Loop Antenna with Versatile Integrated Amplifier (SLAVIA) detectors situated at different locations in Europe, we study the relationship between electromagnetic radiation emitted during different stages of lightning flashes and their corresponding optical characteristics observed from space. We find a consistent trend in all studied flashes, revealing that the PB stage manifests the highest radiance and the most extensive lightning group footprint reported by LIS. This noteworthy finding establishes that the light emitted during the PB stage can be distinctly observable from low Earth orbit.

Biography:

Andrea Kolinska is a PhD student at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, where she studies physics of plasmas and ionized media. In addition, she works at the Department of Space Physics at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on the study of natural lightning discharges, particularly their electromagnetic signatures. She primarily analyzes ground-based data from magnetic loop antennas and Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) data, and she is increasingly working with space-based optical data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). Her main areas of interest include the phase of lightning initiation and the return strokes.