Phys.org September 12, 2023 Despite some advances in existing observational techniques, scientists have continued to strive for higher accuracy in analyzing the complex phenomenon of lightning. To improve the accuracy and resolution of lightning observations researchers at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology optimized the very-high-frequency signal from the interferometer using the double-sided mirror and ensemble empirical mode decomposition method to perform quality control and band-pass truncation on the raw signal. By combining the main window with the auxiliary window, they achieved waveform matching of signals from different antennas based on the generalized cross-correlation method. They obtained the […]
Category Archives: Lightning
Deflecting lightning with a laser lightning rod
Phys.org January 16, 2023 An international team of researchers (France, Switzerland, Germany, USA – New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Sweden) conducted the first field-result that experimentally demonstrated lightning guided by lasers. They conducted an experimental campaign on the Säntis mountain in north-eastern Switzerland during the summer of 2021 with a high-repetition-rate terawatt laser. The guiding of an upward negative lightning leader over a distance of 50 m was recorded by two separate high-speed cameras. It was corroborated in three other instances by very-high-frequency interferometric measurements, and the number of X-ray bursts detected during guided lightning events greatly increased. According […]
New information on ‘gigantic jet’ lightning bursts that reach toward space
Phys.org August 8, 2022 Occasionally, lightning will exit the top of a thunderstorm and connect to the lower edge of space, forming a gigantic jet. An international team of researchers (USA – Georgia Institute of Technology, research org., Texas Tech University, University of New Hampshire, Duke University, University of Oklahoma, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Spain) reports on observations of a negative gigantic jet that transferred an extraordinary amount of charge between the troposphere and ionosphere (∼300 C). It occurred in unusual circumstances, emerging from an area of weak convection. As the discharge ascended from the cloud top, tens of very […]
Lightning and subvisible discharges produce molecules that clean the atmosphere
Phy.org April 29, 2021 Lightning increases the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse itself by producing nitric oxide (NO), leading to atmospheric chemistry that forms ozone (O3) and the atmosphere’s primary oxidant, the hydroxyl radical (OH). A team of researchers (Pennsylvania State University, Texas Tech University, NOAA, University of Oklahoma, University of Maryland, University of Alaska, University of Colorado) analyzed data from their 2012 airborne study of deep convection and chemistry which showed that lightning also directly generates the oxidants OH and the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2). Extreme amounts of OH and HO2 were discovered and linked to visible flashes occurring in front […]