Research

The research carried out by the group of Transient Plasmas in Planetary Atmospheres (TRAPPA) is focused on studying plasmas and electrical discharges that occur within terrestrial planetary atmospheres.

Presently our research aims at understanding the nature of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) as, for instance, Sprites and Halos occurring in the Earth mesosphere, as well as their possible impact on the chemical and electrical properties of the atmosphere of the Earth.

In order to get our goals, we follow two approaches. On the one side, we use and develop models to study the atmospheric kinetics and electrodynamics of TLEs and, on the other, we develop instrumentation, partly developed by the Instrumental and Technological Unit (UDIT) of the IAA, to measure TLEs properties to compare with our model predictions.