High speed optical observations of cloud flashes

Luminosity variations of natural cloud lightning channels were studied using high speed video recordings in Sri Lanka in the tropic. Five cloud flashes were selected for the study, which were recorded with 5000 fps with 512X512 pixel resolution. Luminosity variation along channels and along selected channel segment, duration of cloud activities was studied. It was found that the average duration of selected flashes is 266.44 ms. No particular pattern was observed for the luminosity variation along channel segments. However the luminosity variation across the channel followed a Gaussian distribution pattern. Pattern of the luminosity variation along channels were compared with existing models to understand the development process of cloud flashes. Results show that it is hard to collaborate the observation to a single process for cloud discharges.