Eideard

This is what it looked like from 200 miles away!

With a very lucky shot, scientists have captured a one-second image and the electrical fingerprint of huge lightning that flowed 40 miles upward from the top of a storm.

These rarely seen, highly charged meteorological events are known as gigantic jets, and they flash up to the lower levels of space, or ionosphere.

While they don’t occur every time there is lightning, they are substantially larger than their downward striking cousins…

“This confirmation of visible electric discharges extending from the top of a storm to the edge of the ionosphere provides an important new window on processes in Earth’s global electrical circuit,” said Brad Smull, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences…

“Our measurements show that gigantic jets are capable of transferring a substantial electrical charge to the lower ionosphere,” Steven Cummer, Duke University engineer, said.

“They are essentially upward lightning from thunderclouds that deliver charge just like conventional cloud-to-ground lightning. What struck us was the size of this event.”

It appears from the measurements that the amount of electricity discharged by conventional lightning and gigantic jets is comparable, Cummer said.

But the gigantic jets travel farther and faster than conventional lightning because thinner air between the clouds and ionosphere provides less resistance.

Whereas a conventional lightning bolt follows a six-inch channel and travels about 4.5 miles down to earth, the gigantic jet recorded by the scientists contained multiple channels and traveled about 40 miles upward.

Wow! Adds additional impact to the thought – “Don’t mess with Mother Nature!”