Lightning characterization through acoustic measurements

Lightning generated acoustic shock waves are the most frequent natural explosions: they are good candidates to probe meteorological local properties of the acoustic propagation medium over distances of less than 100 km. The goal of the Ph.D. is to study the transformation the thunder undergoes (amplitude, spectrum) during its travel from the lightning channel towards a detector (microphone, microbarograph), the work is based on two complementary approaches: first the Flhoward software (UPMC) designed to simulate the propagation of acoustic shock waves through a realistic atmosphere model (including temperature gradients, rigid ground, and winds) will help us studying the traveling waveforms. And in second the analysis of the acoustic records (audible and infrasounds) obtained during the PEACH campaign (Autumn 2012) will provide data to which simulations will be confronted.