1. LEONA: T RANSIENT L UMINOUS E VENT AND T HUNDERSTORM H IGH E NERGY E MISSION C OLLABORATIVE N ETWORK IN L ATIN A MERICA Fernanda São Sabbas – fernandasaosabbas@gmail.com Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE, Brazil

2. T RANSIENT L UMINOUS E VENTS : SUMMARY

3. Adapted from Chen et al. [2008] 1 sprite/minute 1 halo/minute 35 elves/minute T RANSIENT L UMINOUS E VENTS : G LOBAL RATES (d) Global lightning distribution Adapted Courtesy: Caitano da Silva ISUAL: Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning onboard FORMOSAT-2 satellite

4. H ISTORICAL S UMMARY OF S OUTH A MERICA UP TO D ATE 1991: First TLE observations over South America Space Shuttle, Mesoscale Lightning Experiment – MLE, STS-43 mission 1995: First airplane observations of sprites over Peru University of Alaska Peru95 Campaign 2002/2003: First sprite observation and campaign in Brazil Result from international effort: UW, INPE, UAF, USU 2005: First observations of TLEs above Argentina University of Alaska Chile2005 Campaign (from Cerro Tololo) 2005-2008: DEELUMINOS Project / FAPESP grant DEELUMINOS: Electromagnetic Energy Deposition in the Upper Atmosphere Signaled by Sprites and Other Transient Luminous Events 5 TLE campaigns in Brazil International and national collaborations 2012: Start of ACATMOS team and LEONA ACATMOS: Atmospheric Electrodynamical Coupling team: LEONA: TLE and Thunderstorm High Energy Emission Collaborative Network in Latin America

5. S UMMARY OF TLE C AMPAIGNS SAMA Figures courtesy: Rodrigo Azambuja 2002/ 2003: 18 sprites 2005: 11 TLEs 2006 A: >400 TLEs 2006 P: ~100 TLEs 2007: 46 sprites 2008: ~20 TLEs

6. LEONA Initial Collaboration team Brazil: National Institute for Space Research – INPE (PI institution) Instituto Tecnológico SIMEPAR Peru: Jicamarca Radio Observatory – JRO, Peru Argentina: National University of Cordoba – NUC Astronomy and space Physics Institute - CONICET Russia: Lebedev Physical Institute – LPI, Russian Academy of Science ??? (You are invited to join!) TLE and High Energy Emissions related to Thunderstorms (HEET) spatial distribution and climatology in Latin America: not measured by satellites Ionospheric effects of lightning and TLEs in the ionosphere: e.g. Jicamarca and Julia Observatories Possible relationship with other phenomena: e.g. connection with gravity waves, high energy particle precipitation in SAMA HEET and TLE measurements in coordination with Auger measurements ??? Discovery of other optical phenomena ??? ??? (Other interesting topics are very welcome!) Research Interests:

7. Necessidades: - Local afastado das luzes da cidade - Boa visibilidade no horizonte - Céu claro no local - Segurança - Eletricidade - Internet Câmera CMOS intensificada de alta velocidade (até 67 mil fps) Remotely controlled video EMCCD cameras (30 fps) Manualy oerated high-speed instensfied video cameras (60,000 fps and more) for campaigns. TLE OBSERVATION EQUIPMENT Pan-titl controller (black) and pan-tilt with camera enclosures, for remote operation.

8. LEONA I NITIAL C OVERAGE

9. LEONA Target Thunderstorms

10. MCS track Third Campaign MCS of 22-23/02/2006

12. São Sabbas, F T et al., Observations of Prolific Transient Luminous Event Production Above a Mesoscale Convective System in Argentina during the Sprite2006 Campaign in Brazil. J. Geophys. Res., 2010.

13. R EQUIREMENTS FOR TLE O BSERVATION RequirementsAuger Observation site away from city lights (TLEs have low luminosity)OK! Nighttime observations only to do not damage equipmentOK! Turn off all outdoors lights at the site during observations (sensitive cameras and lights can obfuscate the TLEs) Possible??? Clear sky on site (visible stars at low elevation) and thunderstorm ~200-800 km away OK! Safety at the siteOK! Internet connection: - The cameras are operated remotely - Compressed images need to be sent at near real time to the observer to follow the TLE activity, and point the camera - The TLE data locally stored needs to be sent to the storage server at INPE after observations are done Possible??? Appropriated place to install camera with good visibility in the horizon/ low elevation angle: -Ideal: 360 o unobstructed view -Minimum: 180 o unobstructed view centered on West direction Possible??? (Visited Cohihueco site in July 2012, it has minimum requirement) Technical support: - A person to go check out the equipment in case there is any problemPossible???

14. LEONA TLE O BSERVATION AT AUGER Requirements for AugerAuger A small place in the terrace of Cohihueco site or other to put to camera Possible??? A small area inside to place the controller/storage PC + nobreak Possible??? Turn off all outdoors lights at the site during observations (sensitive cameras and lights can obfuscate the TLEs) Possible??? Power: 1000 W Possible??? Safety at the site Possible??? Internet connection: - Ideal band 512 kb/s - Realistic band 256 kb/s - Minimum band 120 kb/s Possible??? Minimum technical support from Auger personnelPossible???

15. L ATIN A MERICAN COLLABORATION FOR COBRAT T LE AND HIGH ENERGY EMISSION MEASUREMENTS ONBOARD LONG DURATION BALLOONS Fernanda São Sabbas (on behalf of ACATMOS team) Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE