Radio atmospheric a distance where luminosity is visible and thunder can be heard (typically about 10 km), these electromagnetic impulses are the only sources of direct information about thunderstorm activity on the ground. Transients electric currents during return strokes (R strokes) or intracloud strokes (K strokes) are the main sources for the generation of impulse-type electromagnetic radiation known as sferics (sometimes called atmospherics). While this impulsive radiation dominates at frequencies less than about 100 kHz, (loosely called long waves), a continuous noise component becomes increasingly important at higher frequencies. The longwave electromagnetic propagation of sferics takes place within the Earth-ionosphere waveguide between
Radio acoustic sounding system with a 60 to 100 meter pulse length. Because of atmospheric attenuation of the acoustic signals at the RASS frequencies used by boundary layer radar wind profilers, the altitude range that can be sampled is usually 0.1 to 1.5 km, depending on atmospheric conditions (e.g., high wind velocities tend to limit RASS altitude coverage to a few hundred meters because the acoustic signals are blown out of the radar beam). Radio acoustic sounding system A radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) is a system for measuring the atmospheric lapse rate using backscattering of radio waves from an acoustic wave front to