What is lightning?
How it works: Electrical charges develop inside a storm cloud. Positively charged atoms go to the top of the cloud. Negatively charged atoms go to the bottom. If the negatively charged atoms become too crowded, they “jump” to another part of the cloud, to a different cloud, or to the ground. This jump causes a huge spark of static electricity called LIGHTNING! ~~Warning ~~ DURING A LIGHTNING STORM, seek shelter in a house or large building. Stay away from windows and metal objects, such as radiators.
Much of the following was taken or adapted from NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL NSSL -102 by Holle and Lopez. Lightning is a transient discharge of static electricity that serves to re-establish electrostatic equilibrium within a storm environment. Any pilot will tell you that the average thunderstorm has a very turbulent environment. Strong updrafts and down drafts occur with regularity, even within small thunderstorms. The updrafts transport water droplets up into the cloud, while ice particles descend from the frozen upper regions of the cloud. As they do, they bump and collide with each other. Through this process, electrons shear off of the ascending water droplets and collect on the descending ice particles. (A similar effect occurs when you rub your feet across a carpet before touching a door knob.) This generates an electric field within the cloud, with the top having a positive charge, and the bottom having a negative charge. An electric field is also generated between the botto
Lightning is a form of electrical discharge between clouds or between a cloud and the ground. The discharge may take place between two parts of the same cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. Lightning may appear as a jagged streak, a flash in the sky, or in the rarer form of a brilliant ball. Thunder is the sound waves produced by the explosive heating of the air in the lightning channel during the return. Lightning Specifics • Most lightning strikes occur either at the beginning or end of a storm. • The average lightning strike is six miles long. • Lightning reaches 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, fours times as hot as the sun’s surface. • A cloud-to-ground lightning channel can be 2 to 10 miles long. • Voltage in a cloud-to-ground strike is 100 million to 1 billion volts.
Question: Could you explain the physical characteristics of lightning as it pertains to physics? ———————————————— Answer: Lightning is a discharge of a large electrostatic charge that builds up on clouds near the surface of the earth during atmospheric disturbances such a thunderstorms (duh!). According to Frederick Trinklein (Modern Physics textbook for High Schools) a typical discharge from a lightning bolt is a coulomb of charge. This is rather substantial. Given that the electrical potential that builds up between the cloud and the ground is usually estimated in the high megavolt range, the energy transferred here is remarkable. Obviously if a one megavolt bolt hits something delivering a coulomb of charge in the process a megajoule of energy is transferred. Also given that this whole event takes place in a fraction of a second the power dissipated is equally remarkable. Note: this meagvolt bolt I speak of is purely hypothetical for the sake of examp
Most of the following was taken out of NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL NSSL -102 by Holle and Lopez. Lightning discharges can be classified into two types: Cloud to ground (CG) discharges. These discharges have at least one channel connecting the cloud to the ground [CG; or cloud to water (CW)]. Cloud discharges that have NO channel to ground. These cloud discharges are, in turn, classified as in-cloud (IC), cloud to air (CA), and cloud to cloud (CC). This discussion will highlight the CG types of flashes. A CG lightning discharge is typically initiated inside the thundercloud. It is first apparent when a faint negatively charged channel, the stepped leader, emerges from the base of the cloud. Under the influences of the electric field established between the cloud and the ground, the leader propagates towards the ground in a series of luminous steps of about 1 microsecond (1*10 -6) in duration and 50 to 100 meters in length, with a pause between steps of about 50 microseconds. The stepp
