Friday, October 11, 2024

New Use for Old Spy Plane - Discovering Secret of Lightning

A spy plane retrofitted with research equipment has discovered some very intriguing things while observing thunderstorms in the tropics.
 

According to a new paper published by the researchers behind the retrofitted spy plane, it appears that storms in the tropics are actually littered with medium-duration gamma rays, which could completely change what we know about how lightning forms.

The new papers, which were published in the journal Nature this month, describe in great detail the data that the researchers gathered while observing the atmosphere during tropical thunderstorms. According to that data, the lightning within those storms could very well be caused by long-duration gamma-ray emissions that sweep across parts of the atmosphere throughout the storm’s duration. more