Publications by Antonio Sunjerga

Mountaintop Gamma Ray Observations of Three Terrestrial Gamma‐Ray Flashes at the Säntis Tower, Switzerland With Coincident Radio Waveforms

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga

We report on the mountain top observation of three terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) that occurred during the summer storm season of 2021. To our knowledge, these are the first TGFs observed in a mountaintop environment and the first published European ...

2024

Direct observations of X-rays produced by upward positive lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga, Thomas Chaumont

X-rays have been observed in natural downward cloud-to-ground lightning for over 20 years and in rocket-triggered lightning for slightly less. In both cases, this energetic radiation has been detected during the stepped and dart leader phases of downward n ...

Nature Publishing Group2024

Dataset for Mt. Säntis Upward Positive Flash on July 24, 2021, at 16:24 UTC

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

This dataset captures the Mt. Säntis upward positive flash event on 2021-07-24 at 16:24 UTC. It includes video recordings and data files from various acquisition systems. The data are intended for lightning research and analysis. ...

Zenodo2024

High-frequency response of a hemispherical grounding electrode

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

The lightning discharge current is characterized by a high-frequency spectrum extending from DC to about 10 MHz. The calculation of the grounding impedance is one of the most important aspects of designing lightning protection systems. The search for analy ...

Elsevier2024

Laser-guided lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga, Victor Moreno

Lightning discharges between charged clouds and the Earth’s surface are responsible for considerable damages and casualties. It is therefore important to develop better protection methods in addition to the traditional Franklin rod. Here we present the fir ...

Nature Publishing Group2023

Laser-guided lightning using kHz filamentation at 1030 nm

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga, Jonathan Leon Wolf

Controlling lightning is a long-time dream of mankind. Along with the rapid evolution of laser technologies, the idea to develop lightning protection based on filamentation of high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers emerged in the 1990s [1]. The goal of the Las ...

2023

X-rays associated with the stepping of upward negative leaders at the Säntis Tower: Preliminary results

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, David Smith, Antonio Sunjerga

2022

Analysis of Lightning Electromagnetic Field Propagation Over Mountainous Terrain using Simultaneous Records of Current and its Electric Field at 380-km Distance

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Mohammad Azadifar, Dongshuai Li, Antonio Sunjerga

2022

X-rays associated with stepping of the dart leader in upward negative lightning discharges at the Säntis Tower: Preliminary results

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, David Smith, Antonio Sunjerga

2022

The Laser Lightning Rod Project

Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Mohammad Azadifar, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga, Victor Moreno

2022

On the Initiation of Upward Negative Lightning by Nearby Lightning Activity: An Analytical Approach

Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

Upward lightning occurs generally from tall structures. The mechanism of the initiation of upward lightning is not yet fully understood. Upward lightning can be classified into two categories based on either the absence or the presence of other lightning a ...

2021

X-rays observations at the Säntis Tower: Preliminary results

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, David Smith, Mohammad Azadifar, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga

2021

Lightning to tall structures: Characterization, Modeling and Protection

Antonio Sunjerga

Lightning physics is highly multidisciplinary, involving areas such as plasma physics, electrical engineering, meteorology, thermodynamics and particle physics. Upward lightning is a special type of lightning initiated from tall structures that has attract ...

EPFL2021

Laser lightning rod and artificial fog dissipation

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Mohammad Azadifar, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga, Victor Moreno

IEEE2021

Incidence of Upward Lightning Triggered by Nearby Lightning: A Monte Carlo Simulation

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

Upward lightning is the dominant type of lightning discharge to tall structures. It has been observed that a significant number of these upward flashes are initiated by nearby lightning activity. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of upward ...

2021

Bidirectional Recoil Leaders in Upward Lightning Flashes Observed at the Säntis Tower

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Mohammad Azadifar, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga

We report the observation of three negative upward flashes recorded by a high-speed camera at the Säntis Tower during the Summer of 2019. The camera was operating at 10,000 fps and an exposure time of 99 μs. Simultaneous measurements of the lightning curre ...

2021

The laser lightning rod project

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Mohammad Azadifar, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga

Lightning is highly destructive due to its high power density and unpredictable character. Directing lightning away would allow to protect sensitive sites from its direct and indirect impacts (electromagnetic perturbations). Up to now, lasers have been una ...

2021

Säntis Lightning Research Facility Instrumentation

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Abraham Rubinstein, Davide Pavanello, Mario Paolone, David Smith, Carlos Alberto Romero Romero, Mohammad Azadifar, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga

The Säntis Tower was instrumented in May 2010 to measure currents of lightning discharges striking the tower. Since then the system has been recurrently updated and expanded. Currently, data associated with lightning strikes to the tower are collected at f ...

2021

Mountaintop gamma ray observations of two TGFs at the Santis Tower, Switzerland with coincident radio waveforms characteristic of a RREA current pulse

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga

The electrodynamics of the Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flash (TGF) are not fully understood but the last decade has seen compelling observations in lightning leader (+IC) radio emission that have linked a subset of TGF satellite observations with unique waveform ...

2021

Grounding Resistance of a Hemispheric Electrode Located on the Top of a Finite-Height, Cone-Shaped Mountain

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Hamidreza Karami, Antonio Sunjerga

In this letter, we present an analytical solution for the resistance of a hemispheric grounding electrode located on the top of a mountain. The mountain is modeled as a truncated cone with a finite height. Recently, a closed-form solution for the grounding ...

2020