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Just released are findings from a new study on wrong-way lightning. Recognized as gigantic jets, these rarely seen bolts of lightning have been witnessed streaking up to 90 kilometres above the storm head.
Steven Cummer led the research team for the Duke University in North Carolina. They were lucky enough to not only see, but to capture rare footage, as a jet of lightning streaked above the tropical storm Cristobal. The cameras had to be trained on the exact spot of where the jet would be, as they occur so quickly.
The team discovered the upward lightning carried 144 Coulombs of electrical charge. "This gigantic jet carried as much charge to the upper atmosphere as the very biggest cloud-to-ground lightning strokes about a hundred to a thousand times bigger than a typical lightning stroke", said Cummer. "Essentially nothing was known about the electrical nature of gigantic jets, we immediately started analyzing our data to understand what was going on".
The thinner air between the clouds and the ionosphere provides less resistance, causing the charge to travel further and faster.
Clear proof was collected, for the first time, that an electrical charge can move directly from the troposphere into the ionosphere, moving through two layers of Earth’s atmosphere. “Until now we didn't know whether gigantic jets actually made electrical contact with the upper atmosphere to discharge the thunderstorm"
Sprites are another, little known lightning phenomena. As part of the global electric circuit they are seen as red coloured lightning-like flashes that begin just above the great anvil clouds of large thunderstorm complexes, rising upwards into the ionosphere.
Other phenomenon known as blue jet lightning, ball lightning, elves and blue starters, have been sighted by both professionals and amateurs.
Passengers and crew on a Qantas 707 were stunned when flying through a thunderstorm, they saw a ball of lightning enter the aircraft. It move swiftly down the aisle and out through the back of the plane. Ball lightning is so seldom seen, many scientists did not believe it even existed.
Seen as fast moving streaks of light, St. Elmo’s fire, or tornadic supercells, can appear as violet sparks that bounce across the plane’s windscreen, or leading edges of an aircraft. They are frequently accompanied by a distinct hissing or buzzing sound.
Anyone able to record any of these phenomena on video, are asked to report their findings.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
