Winter thunderstorms in Kamchatka

  1. Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Radio Wave Propagation FEB RAS
  2. Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation RAS
  3. Pushkov Institute of Earth Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Propagation of Radio Waves RAS

Winter thunderstorms in Kamchatka are rare meteorological phenomena. To investigate the nature of this phenomenon, time variations of quasistatic electric field and meteorological quantities at «Paratunka» observatory, IKIR FEB RAS (φ = 52:97° N; λ = 158:25° E), and the data on solar, seismic and cyclonic activities available in INTERNET were used as a thunderstorm activity indicator. It was shown that powerful solar flares accompanied by radiation increases in visible and infra-red spectra as well as the Earth infra-red radiation entering the atmosphere before powerful earthquakes with magnitude M > 8 may be additional sources of heat in the near-ground atmosphere of Kamchatka. The impact of tropical cyclones on the processes of thunderstorm activity formation in Kamchatka during weak seismic activity has been determined insufficiently and requires further detailed investigation.

Smirnov S., Mikhailov Yu., Mikhailova G., Kapustina O. Winter thunderstorms in Kamchatka // E3S Web of Conferences. 2019. Vol. 127. P. 01011. DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/201912701011.