These were not believed until we spotted them from space. They are
also obviously rare but
certainly dramatic. The electrical life of
our planet is barely mapped or understood moistly because we do not
think about it and have no serious illusions in terms of tapping it.
The potential though is clearly huge and well worth more thought.
A vertical laser beam with the right frequency could plausibly
generate a channel that then taps the actual potential difference.
Our problem is to have such a device that is large enough to work.
All good fun.
'Gigantic Jet'
Lightning Spotted Over China
By Elizabeth
Howell, Tue, 26 Feb, 2013
A rare glimpse of a
"gigantic jet" — a huge and mysterious burst of lightning
that connects a thunderstorm with the upper atmosphere — was made
over China in 2010 and was recently described by scientists.
The gigantic jet took
place in eastern China on Aug. 12, 2010 — the farthest a
ground-based one has ever been observed from the equator, according
to the research team.
Previous jets were
mainly seen in tropical or subtropical regions, but this one took
place around 35 degrees latitude, about the same as the southern part
of Tennessee in the United States.
"This is the
first report from mainland China," lead researcher Jing Yang, an
atmospheric scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Beijing, told OurAmazingPlanet. The results were recently published
in the Chinese Science Bulletin.
Researchers got a good
look at the storm using a variety of tools, including Doppler radar
data and weather pictures in the infrared band of radiation.
The gigantic jet
peaked at about 55 miles (89 kilometers) above the ground, far above
the cloudtops that were measured with Doppler radar at an altitude of
11 miles (17 km).
Yang added that her
team had possibly seen another gigantic jet in the same area during a
different thunderstorm, but said they needed to recheck the data to
confirm.
"It's not as
clear as this one if it is a gigantic jet or not," she said.
It wasn't until the
last century that electrical activity above thunderclouds was
scientifically proven, although rumors based on undocumented
observations circulated long before that time.
These electrical
discharges can take several forms, such as sprites (orange-red
flashes) and blue jets, which appear as blue cones.
The first confirmed
gigantic jet was reported in 2001, after American researchers saw a
blue jet reaching 44 miles (70 km) above the clouds at the Arecibo
Observatory in Puerto Rico. This was nearly double the 26-mile (42
km) limit for jets that was previously observed.
Two years later,
researchers described shapes such as "tree jets" and
"carrot jets" that they spotted during a 2002 thunderstorm
over the South China Sea near the Philippines.
While scientists are
still trying to understand how these gigantic jets work, they believe
the jets balance out the electrical charge during thunderstorms by
discharging the ionosphere — a part of the upper atmosphere filled
with charged particles.
Follow Elizabeth
Howell @howellspace, or OurAmazingPlanet on
Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also onFacebook and Google+.
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