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#lightning

16 posts15 participants3 posts today
Public
Soh Kam Yung

"Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods."

caryinstitute.org/news-insight

Cary Institute of Ecosystem StudiesGetting hit by lightning is good for some tropical treesGetting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is, according to a new study. Published in New Phytologist, the study finds that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods.
#Trees#Tropical#Biology
Public
Miss Gayle

"Storm clouds generate massive electrical potentials...but nowhere is the electric field strong enough to ionize the air and start a miles-long branching bolt. Something needs to create the initial spark...

Using precise radio-wave detection in three dimensions, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have determined that the sparks are provided by cosmic rays...atomic-scale particles traveling at incredible speeds..."

Link: dendroica.substack.com/p/inter

Interlude: Galactic Lightning And a real planetary alignment Markael Luterra, Mar 27, 2025 Image of a grey sky over water, small boats and rocks in the foreground, above a lightning bolt reaches from the sky to the water. Atef Ouni, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Amidst the chaotic headlines last week, the news you probably didn’t hear is that scientists have effectively confirmed that cosmic rays spark lightning. I want to share why I find this absolutely wondrous, which means I first need to try to describe some physics at the boundaries of my understanding. There is a problem with lightning. The problem is that it shouldn’t actually happen. "When these extra-powerful particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere, at a rate of about 15 per square mile per second, they generate a chain reaction of nuclear physics, each impact creating more particles like a series of billiard breaks until over a million balls are in motion and the energy has finally been exhausted. This is called an “air shower”, and it’s happening all around us all of the time, and it’s how our atmosphere protects our bodies and all life on Earth."
#Lightning#Weather#AstroPhysics
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