Lightning & Cosmic Rays
From MariachiWiki
Lightning occurs when an electrical current travels out of or into clouds. A lightning strike can travel either upwards from the ground, downwards from the clouds, or between clouds. In rarer cases, lightning can travel upwards from the clouds and even travel out radially. Unconfirmed reports say that lightning can also assume the form of a ball that falls from the sky. Of all cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, about 90% travel from the cloud to the ground. The other 10% of strikes travel from the ground to the clouds. Strikes where lightning travels downwards are known as positive strikes, because a positive charge is moving from the ground to the clouds. Strikes where lightning travels upwards are called negative strikes, because a negative charge is moving from the ground to the clouds. More information about lightning can be found at this site on the pages Lightning Information and Lightning, and at the websites: SLAC
Lightning can be detected by home made circuitry or by commercially purchased detectors. In either case, the detector consists of an antenna that picks up low frequency radio signal from the lightning discharge. Other researchers have determined that x-ray and gamma ray signals can be detected up to 1 millisecond prior to a lightning strike. Lightning detectors that determine the direction of the lightning do so by using a directional antenna. The weather channel www.weather.com has a feature that tracks lightning strikes, and can be used to forecast periods of lightning activity.
It has been proposed that cosmic rays can initiate runaway breakdown (another link) of air and lightning. Also, the atmospheric electric field, generated in a thunderstorm, may affect the number of cosmic rays detected at the earth's surface, as reported from Mexico City in 2006.
Following are some questions relating to both lightning and cosmic rays:
Contents |
Measuring Lightning
The questions that follow ask about cosmic rays and lightning. We have scintillation detectors to measure cosmic events. How then can we measure lightning?
- Can we record exactly the time of lightning occurrence?
- Can we determine the exact location of lightning bolts? By triangulation?
- Can we differentiate between different kinds of lightning - intra-cloud, cloud-to-ground, etc.?
- Can we measure the time duration of individual lightning bolts?
- How can we best track thunderstorms?
- Are thunderstorms categorized according to severity, ionization in the atmosphere, number of lightning flashes, or any other parameter?
In a rain storm is the number or distribution of cosmic rays affected by the presence of lightning?
Cosmic rays produce ionization in the lower atmosphere. Lightning occurs when there is a large electric field. Lightning, electric field, ionization and cosmic rays are related.
- Is the number of detected cosmic rays affected by the presence of lightning?
- Is the energy distribution of the cosmic ray shower, as detected at ground level, affected by the presence of lightning?
Do cosmic rays influence lightning production?
Cosmic rays produce ionization in the lower atmosphere. Lightning, electric discharge, occurs when there is a high enough field strength. Without ionization, lightning would not happen.
- Do cosmic rays influence lightning production?
- Does lightning occur immediately after a cosmic ray event?
- Does lightning occur more often during cosmic ray showers?
- During a series of cosmic ray events, does lightning occur in larger number but smaller intensity and/or duration, or smaller number but larger intensity and/or duration?
Do cosmic rays have different effects on different types of lightning (intracloud, cloud to ground, ground to cloud)?
While it has been suggested that cosmic rays have an effect on lightning, there has been no differentiation between the effects on different types of lightning.
- What effect on lightning can we measure and attribute to cosmic rays?
- Is there a difference in the number or frequency of different types of lightning (intracloud, cloud to ground, ground to cloud) during a shower of cosmic rays?
