Ground-based observations of the relations between lightning charge-moment-change and the physical and optical properties of column sprites

• New methodology for calibrating a commercial CCD video camera, for optical sprite observations.
• Sprite luminosities are found to range from 1.5 to 4.5 MR.
• Charge moment change in +CGs producing sprites range 450–2200 C km.
• We report a linear relationship between the CMC and column sprites luminosity.
• The number of sprite columns does not correlate with +CG CMC value.

Optical observations of 66 sprites, using a calibrated commercial CCD camera, were conducted in 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 winter seasons as part of the ILAN (Imaging of Lightning And Nocturnal flashes) campaign in the vicinity of Israel and the eastern Mediterranean. We looked for correlations between the properties of parent lightning (specifically, the charge moment change; CMC) to the properties of column sprites, such as the measured radiance, the length and the number of column elements in each sprite event. The brightness of sprites positively correlates with the CMC (0.7) and so does the length of sprite elements (0.83). These results are in agreement with previous studies, and support the QE model of sprite generation.