Lightning is one of those natural phenomena that have long inspired fear in the human race. Strived to understand its essence the greatest minds such as Aristotle or Lucretius. They believed that it was a ball consisting of fire and sandwiched in the water vapor of the clouds, and, increasing in size, it breaks through them and falls to the ground with a swift spark.

The concept of lightning and its origin

Most often, lightning is formed in which are quite large. The upper part can be located at an altitude of 7 kilometers, and the lower one - only 500 meters above the ground. Considering the atmospheric air temperature, we can conclude that at a level of 3-4 km, the water freezes and turns into ice floes, which, colliding with each other, are electrified. Those who have largest size, receive negative charge, and the smallest ones are positive. Based on their weight, they are evenly distributed in the cloud by layers. Approaching each other, they form a plasma channel, from which an electric spark, called lightning, is obtained. It got its broken shape due to the fact that on the way to the ground there are often various air particles that form barriers. And to get around them, you have to change the trajectory.

Physical description of lightning

A lightning discharge releases 109 to 1010 joules of energy. Such a colossal amount of electricity in more is spent on creating a light flash and which is otherwise called thunder. But even a small part of lightning is enough to do unthinkable things, for example, its discharge can kill a person or destroy a building. Another interesting fact says that it a natural phenomenon capable of melting sand, forming hollow cylinders. This effect is achieved due to high temperature inside the zipper, it can reach 2000 degrees. The time of impact with the ground is also different, it cannot be more than a second. As for power, the pulse amplitude can reach hundreds of kilowatts. Combining all these factors, the most powerful natural discharge of current is obtained, which brings death to everything that it touches. All existing species lightning are very dangerous, and meeting with them is extremely undesirable for a person.

Thunder formation

All types of lightning cannot be imagined without thunder, which does not carry the same danger, but in some cases can lead to network failure and other technical problems. It occurs due to the fact that a warm wave of air, heated by lightning to a temperature hotter than the sun, collides with a cold one. The sound resulting from this is nothing but a wave caused by air vibrations. In most cases, the volume increases towards the end of the roll. This is due to the reflection of sound from the clouds.

What are lightning

It turns out they are all different.

1. Line lightning - the most common variety. An electric peal looks like an overgrown tree turned upside down. Several thinner and shorter "processes" depart from the main canal. The length of such a discharge can reach 20 kilometers, and the current strength is 20,000 amperes. The speed of movement is 150 kilometers per second. The temperature of the plasma filling the lightning channel reaches 10,000 degrees.

2. Intracloud lightning - the origin of this type is accompanied by a change in electric and magnetic fields, radio waves are also emitted. Such a roll is most likely to be found closer to the equator. In temperate latitudes, it appears extremely rarely. If there is lightning in the cloud, then a foreign object that violates the integrity of the shell, such as an electrified aircraft or a metal cable, can also induce it to get out. The length can vary from 1 to 150 kilometers.

3. Ground lightning - this species goes through several stages. On the first of them, impact ionization begins, which is created at the beginning by free electrons, they are always present in the air. Under the influence electric field elementary particles acquire high speeds and head towards the ground, colliding with the molecules that make up the air. Thus, there are electron avalanches, otherwise called streamers. They are channels that, merging with each other, cause a bright, thermally insulated lightning. It reaches the ground in the form of a small ladder, because there are obstacles in its path, and in order to get around them, it changes direction. The speed of movement is approximately 50,000 kilometers per second.

After the lightning has passed its way, it ends its movement for several tens of microseconds, while the light weakens. After that, the next stage begins: the repetition of the path traveled. The most recent discharge surpasses all the previous ones in brightness, the current strength in it can reach hundreds of thousands of amperes. The temperature inside the channel fluctuates around 25,000 degrees. This type of lightning is the longest, so the consequences can be devastating.

Pearl Lightning

When answering the question of what kind of lightning are, one cannot lose sight of such a rare natural phenomenon. Most often, the discharge passes after the linear one and completely repeats its trajectory. Only now it looks like balls that are at a distance from each other and resemble beads made of precious material. Such lightning is accompanied by the loudest and rolling sounds.

Fireball

A natural phenomenon when lightning takes the form of a ball. In this case, the trajectory of its flight becomes unpredictable, which makes it even more dangerous for humans. In most cases, such an electric lump occurs together with other species, but the fact of its appearance even in sunny weather has been recorded.

How it is formed It is this question that is most often asked by people who have encountered this phenomenon. As everyone knows, some things are excellent conductors of electricity, and so it is in them, accumulating their charge, that the ball begins to emerge. It can also appear from the main lightning. Eyewitnesses say that it just appears out of nowhere.

Lightning diameter ranges from a few centimeters to a meter. As for the color, there are several options: from white and yellow to bright green, it is extremely rare to find a black electric ball. After a rapid descent, it moves horizontally, about a meter from the surface of the earth. Such lightning can suddenly change its trajectory and just as suddenly disappear, releasing tremendous energy, due to which melting occurs or even destruction various items. She lives from ten seconds to several hours.

lightning sprite

More recently, in 1989, scientists discovered another type of lightning, which was called sprite. The discovery happened quite by accident, because the phenomenon is extremely rare and lasts only tenths of a second. They are distinguished from others by the height at which they appear - approximately 50-130 kilometers, while other subspecies do not overcome the 15-kilometer line. Also, the lightning sprite has a huge diameter, which reaches 100 km. They appear vertical and flash in clusters. Their color varies depending on the composition of the air: closer to the ground, where there is more oxygen, they are green, yellow or white, but under the influence of nitrogen, at an altitude of more than 70 km, they acquire a bright red hue.

Behavior during a thunderstorm

All types of lightning carry an extraordinary danger to health and even human life. To avoid electric shock, the following rules should be followed in open areas:

1. In this situation, the risk group includes the most tall objects so should be avoided open areas. To become lower, it is best to sit down and put your head and chest on your knees, in case of defeat, this posture will protect all vital organs. In no case should you lie flat, so as not to increase the area of ​​\u200b\u200ba possible hit.
2. Also, do not hide under tall trees and unprotected structures or metal objects (for example, a picnic shed) will be undesirable shelter.
3. During a thunderstorm, you should immediately get out of the water, because it is a good conductor. Getting into it, a lightning discharge can easily spread to a person.
4. Under no circumstances should you use your mobile phone.
5. To provide first aid to the victim, it is best to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and immediately call the rescue service.

Rules of conduct in the house

Indoors, too, there is a danger of injury.

1. If a thunderstorm starts outside, the first thing to do is close all windows and doors.
2. All electrical appliances must be turned off.
3. Stay away from wired telephones and other cables, they are excellent conductors of electricity. Metal pipes have the same effect, so you should not be near plumbing.
4. Knowing how ball lightning is formed and how unpredictable its trajectory is, if it does get into the room, you must immediately leave it and close all windows and doors. If these actions are not possible, it is better to stand still.

Nature is still beyond the control of man and carries many dangers. All types of lightning are, in essence, the most powerful electrical discharges, which are several times more powerful than all artificially created current sources by man.

Ancient people did not always consider thunderstorm and lightning, as well as the accompanying roll of thunder, as a manifestation of the wrath of the gods. For example, for the Hellenes, thunder and lightning were symbols supreme power, while the Etruscans considered them signs: if a flash of lightning was seen from east side, this meant that everything would be fine, and if it sparkled in the west or northwest, vice versa.

The idea of ​​the Etruscans was adopted by the Romans, who were convinced that a lightning strike from right side is sufficient reason to postpone all plans for the day. The Japanese had an interesting interpretation of heavenly sparks. Two vajras (lightning bolts) were considered symbols of Aizen-meo, the god of compassion: one spark was on the head of the deity, he held the other in his hands, suppressing everything with it. negative desires humanity.

Lightning is a huge electrical discharge, which is always accompanied by a flash and thunderous peals (a shining discharge channel resembling a tree is clearly visible in the atmosphere). At the same time, a flash of lightning is almost never one, it is usually followed by two, three, and often reaches several tens of sparks.

These discharges are almost always formed in cumulonimbus clouds, sometimes in stratonimbus clouds. large sizes: upper bound often reaches seven kilometers above the surface of the planet, while Bottom part can almost touch the ground, staying no higher than five hundred meters. Lightning can form both in one cloud and between nearby electrified clouds, as well as between a cloud and the ground.

A thundercloud is made up of a large number steam condensed in the form of ice floes (at a height exceeding three kilometers, it is almost always ice crystals, since the temperature here does not rise above zero). Before the cloud becomes a thundercloud, inside it begins active movement ice crystals, while they are helped to move by rising currents of warm air from the heated surface.

Air masses carry smaller pieces of ice upwards, which constantly collide with larger crystals during movement. As a result, smaller crystals are positively charged, larger ones are negatively charged.

After the small ice crystals gather at the top and the big ones at the bottom, top part The cloud is positively charged, while the lower one is negatively charged. Thus, the electric field strength in the cloud reaches extremely high performance: million volts per meter.

When these oppositely charged regions collide with each other, at the points of contact, ions and electrons form a channel through which all charged elements rush down and an electrical discharge is formed - lightning. At this time, such a powerful energy is released that its strength would be enough to power a 100-watt light bulb for 90 days.

The channel heats up to almost 30 thousand degrees Celsius, which is five times higher than the temperature of the Sun, forming bright light(the flash usually lasts only three-quarters of a second). After the formation of the channel, the thundercloud begins to discharge: the first discharge is followed by two, three, four or more sparks.

A lightning strike resembles an explosion and causes the formation of a shock wave, which is extremely dangerous for any living creature that finds itself near the channel. Shockwave of the strongest electrical discharge a few meters away, it is quite capable of breaking trees, injuring or concussing even without a direct electric shock:

• At a distance of up to 0.5 m to the channel, lightning can destroy weak structures and injure a person;
• At a distance of up to 5 meters, the buildings remain intact, but can knock out windows and stun a person;
• Over long distances shock wave negative consequences does not carry and goes into sound wave known as thunder rumbles.

Thunder rolls

A few seconds after a lightning strike was recorded, due to a sharp increase in pressure along the channel, the atmosphere heats up to 30 thousand degrees Celsius. As a result of this, explosive vibrations of the air arise and thunder occurs. Thunder and lightning are closely interconnected with each other: the length of the discharge is often about eight kilometers, so the sound from its different parts reaches different time, forming thunder peals.

Interestingly, by measuring the time that has passed between thunder and lightning, you can find out how far the epicenter of the thunderstorm is from the observer.

To do this, you need to multiply the time between lightning and thunder by the speed of sound, which is from 300 to 360 m / s (for example, if the time interval is two seconds, the epicenter of the thunderstorm is a little more than 600 meters from the observer, and if three - at a distance kilometers). This will help determine if the storm is moving away or approaching.

Amazing fireball

One of the least studied, and therefore the most mysterious phenomena nature is considered to be ball lightning - a luminous plasma ball moving through the air. It is mysterious because the principle of the formation of ball lightning is still unknown: despite the fact that there is big number hypotheses explaining the causes of this amazing phenomenon nature, there were objections to each of them. Scientists have not been able to experimentally achieve the formation of ball lightning.

Ball lightning can exist long time and move along an unpredictable trajectory. For example, it is quite capable of hanging in the air for several seconds, and then rushing to the side.

Unlike a simple discharge, there is always one plasma ball: until two or more fire lightnings were simultaneously recorded. The size of ball lightning varies from 10 to 20 cm. Ball lightning is characterized by white, orange or blue tones, although other colors are often found, up to black.

Scientists have not yet determined the temperature indicators of ball lightning: despite the fact that, according to their calculations, it should fluctuate from one hundred to a thousand degrees Celsius, people who were close to this phenomenon did not feel the warmth emanating from ball lightning.

The main difficulty in studying this phenomenon is that scientists rarely manage to fix its appearance, and the testimony of eyewitnesses often casts doubt on the fact that the phenomenon they observed was really ball lightning. First of all, testimony differs as to the conditions in which it appeared: basically it was seen during a thunderstorm.

There are also indications that ball lightning can also appear on a fine day: descend from the clouds, appear in the air, or appear due to some object (tree or pole).

One more characteristic feature ball lightning is its penetration into closed rooms, it was noticed even in the cockpits ( fire ball can enter through windows, descend through ventilation ducts, and even fly out of outlets or a TV). Situations were also repeatedly documented when the plasma ball was fixed in one place and constantly appeared there.

Often, the appearance of ball lightning does not cause trouble (it moves quietly in air currents and flies away or disappears after a while). But, they were also noticed sad consequences when it exploded, instantly evaporating nearby liquid, melting glass and metal.

Possible dangers

Since the appearance of ball lightning is always unexpected, when you see this unique phenomenon near you, the main thing is not to panic, do not move sharply and do not run anywhere: fire lightning is very susceptible to air vibrations. It is necessary to quietly leave the trajectory of the ball and try to stay as far away from it as possible. If a person is indoors, you need to slowly walk to the window opening and open the window: there are many stories when dangerous ball left the apartment.

Nothing can be thrown into a plasma ball: it is quite capable of exploding, and this is fraught not only with burns or loss of consciousness, but with cardiac arrest. If it happened that the electric ball caught a person, you need to transfer him to a ventilated room, wrap him up warmer, do a heart massage, artificial respiration and immediately call a doctor.

What to do in a thunderstorm

When a thunderstorm starts and you see lightning approaching, you need to find shelter and hide from the weather: a lightning strike is often fatal, and if people survive, they often remain disabled.

If there are no buildings nearby, and a person is in the field at that time, he must take into account that it is better to hide from a thunderstorm in a cave. And here tall trees it is advisable to avoid: lightning usually aims at the largest plant, and if the trees have the same height, then it gets into something that conducts electricity better.

To protect separately standing building or a structure from lightning, a high mast is usually installed near them, at the top of which a pointed metal rod is fixed, securely connected to a thick wire, at the other end there is a metal object buried deep in the ground. The operation scheme is simple: a rod from a thundercloud is always charged with a charge opposite to the cloud, which, flowing down the wire underground, neutralizes the charge of the cloud. This device is called a lightning rod and is installed on all buildings of cities and other human settlements.

Here is recently clean, clear sky covered the clouds. The first drops of rain fell. And soon the elements demonstrated their strength to the earth. Thunder and lightning pierced the stormy sky. Where do such phenomena come from? Mankind has seen in them a manifestation of divine power for many centuries. Today we know about the occurrence of such phenomena.

Origin of thunderclouds

Clouds appear in the sky from condensation rising high above the ground and hover in the sky. Clouds are heavier and larger. They bring with them all the "special effects" inherent in bad weather.

Thunderclouds differ from ordinary ones in the presence of a charge of electricity. Moreover, there are clouds with a positive charge, and there are with a negative one.

To understand where thunder and lightning come from, one should rise higher above the earth. In the sky, where there are no obstacles for free flight, the winds blow stronger than on the ground. It is they who provoke the charge in the clouds.

The origin of thunder and lightning can be explained by just one drop of water. She has positive charge electricity in the center and negative outside. The wind breaks it apart. One of them remains with a negative charge and has less weight. Heavier positively charged drops form the same clouds.

Rain and electricity

Before thunder and lightning appear in a stormy sky, the wind separates the clouds into positively and negatively charged ones. Rain falling on the ground carries some of this electricity with it. An attraction is formed between the cloud and the surface of the earth.

The negative charge of the cloud will attract the positive on the ground. This attraction will be located evenly on all surfaces that are on a hill and conduct current.

And now the rain creates all the conditions for the appearance of thunder and lightning. The higher the object is to the cloud, the easier it is for lightning to break through to it.

Origin of lightning

The weather has prepared all the conditions that will help to appear all its effects. She created the clouds from which thunder and lightning come.

The roof, charged with negative electricity, attracts the positive charge of the most exalted object to itself. Its negative electricity will go into the ground.

Both of these opposites tend to be attracted to each other. The more electricity in the cloud, the more it is in the most sublime object.

Accumulating in a cloud, electricity can break through the layer of air between it and the object, and sparkling lightning will appear, thunder will rumble.

How lightning develops

When a thunderstorm rages, lightning, thunder accompany it incessantly. Most often, the spark comes from a negatively charged cloud. It develops gradually.

First, a small stream of electrons flows from the cloud through a channel directed to the ground. In this place of the cloud, electrons accumulate, moving with high speed. Due to this, the electrons collide with air atoms and break them. Separate nuclei are obtained, as well as electrons. The latter also rush to the ground. While they are moving along the channel, all the primary and secondary electrons again split the air atoms that stand in their way into nuclei and electrons.

The whole process is like an avalanche. He is moving upwards. The air warms up, its conductivity increases.

More and more electricity from the cloud flows to the ground at a speed of 100 km / s. At this moment, lightning breaks a channel to the ground. On this road, laid by the leader, electricity begins to flow even faster. A discharge occurs that has great power. Reaching its peak, the discharge decreases. A channel heated by such a powerful current glows. And you can see lightning in the sky. Such a discharge does not last long.

The first discharge is often followed by a second one along the laid channel.

How does thunder appear

Thunder, lightning, rain are inseparable during a thunderstorm.

Thunder arises from next reason. The current in the lightning channel is formed very quickly. The air is very hot during this. This is why it expands.

It happens so fast that it looks like an explosion. Such a push shakes the air violently. These vibrations lead to the appearance of a loud sound. That's where lightning and thunder come from.

As soon as the electricity from the cloud reaches the ground and disappears from the channel, it cools very quickly. The compression of air also results in thunder.

The more lightning passed through the channel (there can be up to 50 of them), the longer the air shaking. This sound is reflected from objects and clouds, and an echo occurs.

Why is there an interval between lightning and thunder

In a thunderstorm, lightning is followed by thunder. Its delay from lightning is due to the different speeds of their movement. Sound moves at a relatively low speed (330 m/s). This is only 1.5 times faster than the movement of a modern Boeing. The speed of light is much greater than the speed of sound.

Thanks to this interval, you can determine how far from the observer are sparkling lightning and thunder.

For example, if 5 seconds elapsed between lightning and thunder, this means that the sound traveled 330 m 5 times. By multiplying, it is easy to calculate that the lightning from the observer was at a distance of 1650 m. If a thunderstorm passes closer than 3 km from a person, it is considered close. If the distance is in accordance with the appearance of lightning and thunder further, then the thunderstorm is distant.

Lightning in numbers

Thunder and lightning have been modified by scientists, and the results of their research are presented to the public.

It was found that the potential difference preceding lightning reaches billions of volts. The current strength at the same time at the moment of discharge reaches 100 thousand A.

The temperature in the channel heats up to 30 thousand degrees and exceeds the temperature on the surface of the Sun. Lightning travels from the clouds to the ground at a speed of 1000 km/s (0.002 s).

The internal channel through which the current flows does not exceed 1 cm, although the visible one reaches 1 m.

Around 1800 thunderstorms occur continuously in the world. The probability of being killed by lightning is 1:2000000 (same as dying from falling out of bed). The chance of seeing ball lightning is 1 in 10,000.

Fireball

On the path of studying where thunder and lightning come from in nature, the most mysterious phenomenon ball lightning appears. These round fiery discharges have not yet been fully explored.

Most often, the shape of such lightning resembles a pear or watermelon. It lasts up to several minutes. Appears at the end of a thunderstorm in the form of red clots from 10 to 20 cm in diameter. The largest ball lightning ever photographed was about 10m in diameter. It makes a buzzing, hissing sound.

It can disappear quietly or with a slight crackle, leaving a smell of burning and smoke.

The movement of lightning does not depend on the wind. They are drawn into enclosed spaces through windows, doors, and even cracks. If they come into contact with a person, they leave severe burns and can be fatal.

Until now, the causes of the appearance of ball lightning were unknown. However, this is not evidence of its mystical origin. In this area, research is underway that can explain the essence of such a phenomenon.

Having become acquainted with such phenomena as thunder and lightning, one can understand the mechanism of their occurrence. It's consistent and quite complex physical and chemical process. It is one of the most interesting phenomena of nature, which is found everywhere and therefore affects almost every person on the planet. Scientists have solved the mysteries of almost all types of lightning and even measured them. Fireball today it is the only undisclosed secret of nature in the field of the formation of such natural phenomena.

Lightning

We often think that electricity is something that is generated only in power plants, and certainly not in the fibrous masses of water clouds, which are so rarefied that you can easily stick your hand into them. However, there is electricity in the clouds, as there is even in the human body.

Nature of electricity

All bodies are made up of atoms, from clouds and trees to human body. Every atom has a nucleus containing positively charged protons and neutral neutrons. The exception is simplest atom Hydrogen has no neutron in its nucleus, but only one proton.

Negatively charged electrons revolve around the nucleus. Positive and negative charges attract each other, so the electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom, like bees around a sweet pie. The attraction between protons and electrons is due to electromagnetic forces. Therefore, electricity is present everywhere we look. As we can see, it is also contained in atoms.

AT normal conditions The positive and negative charges of each atom balance each other, so bodies made up of atoms usually carry no net charge, either positive or negative. As a result, contact with other objects does not cause an electrical discharge. But sometimes the balance of electric charges in bodies can be disturbed. You may experience this yourself when you are at home on a cold winter day. The house is very dry and hot. You, shuffling your bare feet, walk around the palace. Unbeknownst to you, some of the electrons from your soles have passed to the atoms of the carpet.

Related materials:

colorful rains

Now you are carrying an electrical charge, as the number of protons and electrons in your atoms is no longer balanced. Now try to take hold of the metal door handle. A spark will fly between you and her, and you will feel an electric shock. This is what happened - your body, which does not have enough electrons to achieve electrical equilibrium, seeks to restore balance due to the forces of electromagnetic attraction. And it is being restored. There is a flow of electrons between the hand and the doorknob towards the hand. If the room were dark, you would see sparks. Light is visible because the electrons emit light quanta when they jump. If the room is quiet, you will hear a slight crackle.

Electricity surrounds us everywhere and is contained in all bodies. Clouds in this sense are no exception. On the background blue sky they look very harmless. But just like you are in a room, they can carry an electrical charge. If so, beware! When the cloud restores electrical balance within itself, a whole firework bursts out.

How does lightning appear?

Here's what happens: powerful air currents constantly circulate in a huge dark thundercloud, which push various particles together - grains of ocean salt, dust, and so on. In the same way that your soles are freed from electrons by rubbing against a carpet, and particles in a cloud are freed from electrons by collision, which jump to other particles. So there is a redistribution of charges. Some particles that have lost their electrons have a positive charge, while others that have taken on extra electrons now have a negative charge.

Related materials:

Rain on other planets

For reasons that are not entirely clear, heavier particles are negatively charged, while lighter particles are positively charged. Thus, the heavier lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. The negatively charged lower part of the cloud repels electrons towards the ground, since like charges repel. Thus, a positively charged part is formed under the cloud earth's surface. Then, exactly according to the same principle, according to which a spark jumps between you and the doorknob, the same spark will jump between the cloud and the earth, only very large and powerful, this is lightning. Electrons fly in a giant zigzag towards the earth, finding their protons there. Instead of a barely audible crackle, swipe thunder.

If we look at the whole process in slow motion, then this is what we will see. From the base of the cloud protrudes a dimly luminous band called a conductor. The conductor, who is also the "leader", begins to approach the ground with quick winding movements. First he jumps 50 meters to the right, then 50 meters to the left. This is the same zigzag that we see in the sky. The path of the leader to the ground continues for a fraction of a second, lightning current reaches 200 amperes. In home wiring, the current does not exceed 6 amperes. When the leader is at a distance of about 20 meters from the ground, a spark jumps out from it towards the leader and connects with him. A dazzling zigzag rushes up to the cloud, current strength reaches 10,000 amperes.

Many people are afraid terrible natural phenomenon - thunderstorms. This usually happens when the sun is covered with gloomy clouds, terrible thunder rumbles and it rains heavily.

Of course, one should be afraid of lightning, because it can even kill or become. This has been known for a long time, which is why they came up with various means for protection against lightning and thunder (for example, metal poles).

What is going on up there and where does the thunder come from? And how does lightning occur?

thunderclouds

Usually huge. They reach several kilometers in height. It is not visually visible how everything is seething and boiling inside these explosive clouds. These are air, including water droplets, moving at high speed from bottom to top and vice versa.

The uppermost part of these clouds reaches -40 degrees in temperature, and water drops falling into this part of the cloud freeze.

On the origin of thunderclouds

Before we know where thunder comes from and how lightning occurs, let's briefly describe how thunderclouds form.

Most of these phenomena occur not over the water surface of the planet, but over the continents. Besides, thunderclouds intensively formed over the continents of tropical latitudes, where the air near the surface of the earth (in contrast to the air above water surface) gets very hot and rises quickly.

Usually, on the slopes of different elevations, a similar warm air is formed, which draws in moist air from vast areas of the earth's surface and lifts it up.

Thus, the so-called cumulus clouds are formed, turning into thunderclouds, described just above.

Now let's clarify what lightning is, where does it come from?

Lightning and thunder

From those same frozen drops, pieces of ice are formed, which also move in clouds with great speed, colliding, collapsing and charging with electricity. Those ice floes that are lighter and smaller remain at the top, and those that are larger melt, going down, again turning into droplets of water.

Thus, in a thundercloud there are two electrical charge. Negative at the top, positive at the bottom. When different charges meet, a powerful one arises and lightning occurs. Where it comes from, it became clear. And then what happens? A flash of lightning instantly heats up and expands the air around it. The latter heats up so much that an explosion effect occurs. This is the thunder that frightens all life on earth.

It turns out that all these are manifestations. Then there is next question about where the latter comes from, and in such large quantities. And where does it go?

Ionosphere

What is lightning, where does it come from, found out. Now a little about the processes that save the charge of the Earth.

Scientists have found that the charge of the Earth in general is small and amounts to only 500,000 coulombs (like 2 car batteries). Then where does the negative charge disappear, which is carried by lightning closer to the Earth's surface?

Usually, in clear weather, the Earth is slowly discharged (a weak current constantly passes between the ionosphere and the Earth's surface through the entire atmosphere). Although air is considered an insulator, it contains a small proportion of ions, which allows the existence of a current in the volume of the entire atmosphere. Due to this, although slowly, but the negative charge is transferred from the earth's surface to a height. Therefore, the volume of the total charge of the Earth always remains unchanged.

Today, the most common opinion is that ball lightning is a special kind charge in the form of a ball, and the existing one is quite long time and moving along an unpredictable trajectory.

There is no unified theory of the occurrence of this phenomenon today. There are many hypotheses, but so far none has received recognition among scientists.

Usually, as eyewitnesses testify, it occurs in a thunderstorm or in a storm. But there are also cases of its occurrence in sunny weather. More often it is generated by ordinary lightning, sometimes it appears and descends from the clouds, and less often it appears unexpectedly in the air or can even come out of some object (pole, tree).

Some interesting facts

Where does the thunderstorm and lightning come from, we found out. Now a little about the curious facts concerning the above-described natural phenomena.

1. Earth experiences approximately 25 million lightning flashes each year.

2. Lightning has average length approximately 2.5 km. There are also discharges extending in the atmosphere for 20 km.

3. There is a belief that lightning cannot strike the same place twice. In reality, this is not so. Analysis results (according to geographical map) places of lightning strikes over the previous few years show that lightning can strike the same place several times.

So we found out what lightning is, where it comes from.

Thunderstorms are formed as a result of the most complex atmospheric phenomena planetary scale.

Approximately 50 lightning flashes occur on planet Earth every second.