Science Alert June 22, 2023 Using a combination of satellite- and ground-based sensors a team of researchers in the US (USGS (Vancouver), industry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA (Huntsville, AL), NASA, VA) investigated the rate of volcanic lightning (>2,600 flashes min−1) and what it revealed about the dynamics of the submarine eruption. In map view, lightning locations form radially expanding rings. They showed that the initial lightning ring was co-located with an internal gravity wave traveling >80 m s−1 in the stratospheric umbrella cloud. Buoyant oscillations of the plume’s overshooting top generated the gravity waves, which enhanced turbulent particle interactions […]
Tag Archives: Lightning
Lightning Bolt Deposits a Strange Mineral Never Seen on Earth Before
Science Alert April 15, 2023 Phosphate minerals such as those in the apatite group tend to be the dominant forms of phosphorus in minerals on the Earth’s surface. Phosphate can be reduced to phosphides during high-energy events, such as lightning and impacts. An international team of researchers (Italy, USA – University of South Florida) has shown that, in addition to formation of metal phosphides, a new compound was formed by lightning in a fulgurite from New Port Richey, Florida.. A calcium phosphite material, ideally CaHPO3, was found in spherules mainly consisting of iron silicides that formed by lightning-induced fusion of […]
Lightning Strikes Create a Strange Form of Crystal Rarely Seen in Nature
Science Alert January 30, 2023 An international team of researchers (Italy, University of South Florida, Caltech, Princeton University) report the discovery of a dodecagonal quasicrystal Mn72.3Si15.6Cr9.7Al1.8Ni0.6—composed of a periodic stacking of atomic planes with quasiperiodic translational order and 12-fold symmetry along the two directions perpendicular to the planes. They found it in a fulgurite consisting predominantly of fused and melted sand along with traces of melted conductor metal from a nearby downed power line. According to the researcher fulgurite may have been created by a lightning strike that combined sand with material from downed power line or from electrical discharges from the downed power line alone. It reached temperatures of at least 1,710 °C as indicated by the […]
Lightning impacts edge of space in ways not previously observed
Science Daily June 14, 2021 A team of researchers in the US (New Mexico Tech, University of Central Florida) working with data collected by the Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) at the Arecibo Observatory, satellites, and lightning detectors in Puerto Rico, have for the first time examined the simultaneous impacts of thunderstorms and solar flares on the ionospheric D-region. One of the key things they showed in the paper is that lightning- and solar flare-driven signatures are completely different. The first tends to deplete electron density depletions, while the second enhances. They determined that solar flares and lightning from thunderstorms trigger […]
Mysterious, Upside-Down Lightning May Not Be a Freak Phenomenon After All
Science Alert January 21, 2021 Lightning-like blue jets of atmospheric electric discharges fan into cones as they propagate from the top of thunderclouds into the stratosphere. They are thought to initiate in an electric breakdown between the positively charged upper region of a cloud and a layer of negative charge at the cloud boundary and in the air above. The breakdown forms a leader that transitions into streamers when propagating upwards. An international team of researchers (Denmark, Norway, Spain) report that they observed five intense, approximately 10-microsecond blue flashes from a thunderstorm cell. One flash initiated a pulsating blue jet […]
New tractor beam has potential to tame lightning
Phys.org November 11, 2020 Numerous experiments utilizing powerful pulsed lasers with peak-intensity above air photoionization and photo-dissociation have demonstrated excitation and confinement of plasma tracks in the wakes of laser field. An international team of researchers (Australia, USA – UCLA) developed and demonstrated an efficient approach for triggering, trapping, and guiding electrical discharges in air. It is based on the use of a low-power continuous-wave vortex beam that traps and transports light-absorbing particles in mid-air. They found a 30% decrease in discharge threshold mediated by optically trapped graphene microparticles with the use of a laser beam of a few hundred […]
What Is ‘Hot Lightning’? Satellites Reveal Which Strikes Are Most Likely to Start Wildfires
IEEE Spectrum August 2, 2019 The U.S. National Lightning Detection Network keeps a record of virtually all lightning that strikes the ground anywhere in the United States. That network is maintained by Helsinki-based Vaisala. The company researchers plan to combine all the data available to them to pinpoint exactly which flashes pose the greatest threat. Lightning that harbors a continuing current is more likely to start fires and damage homes or equipment. A continuing current is not as powerful as the flash itself. While a flash might have a peak current of 20,000 amps (averaged from the multiple composite strokes that […]
Lightning’s electromagnetic fields may have protective properties
Space Daily February 11, 2019 Researchers in Israel repot that in the course of numerous laboratory experiments, where they induced fields similar to those in the atmosphere, they witnessed significant effects on living heart cells of rats within 30-40 minutes. Extremely weak magnetic fields in the 7.6-8Hz frequency range induced several effects when applied to rat cardiac cells, including reductions in spontaneous contractions, calcium transients and the release of Creatine Kinase. It may explain why all living organisms have electrical activity in the same ELF spectral range. This may have some therapeutic implications down the line, since these ELF fields […]