Implications of Multiple Corona Bursts in Lightning Processes for Radio Frequency Interferometer Observations

Recent observations from LOFAR indicate that multiple, spatially distributed corona bursts can occur in lightning processes with a timescale of 10 microseconds. The close proximity of the corona bursts in space and time poses a great observation challenge for short-baseline (typically <= 100 m) radio interferometers. This paper reports simulations to show the interferometry results that would be obtained with such an interferometer. In particular, spatially-separated corona bursts at fixed locations may be seen as a fast (>10(7) m/s) propagating source with large power variation if the resolution of the instrument is greater than the spatial separation of the bursts. The implications and suggestions for lightning interferometry studies are discussed in the paper.