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Lightning is a natural phenomenon, more specifically an atmospheric electrical phenomenon. It consists of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions, either both existing within the atmosphere or one within the atmosphere and one on the ground, with these regions then becoming partially or wholly electrically neutralized.
The lightning may be too far away to discern individual flashes. Smooth channel lightning is an informal term referring to a type of cloud-to-ground lightning strike that has no visible branching and appears like a line with smooth curves as opposed to the jagged appearance of most lightning channels. They are a form of positive lightning ...
Close strikes can also generate EMPs, especially during "positive" lightning discharges. Lightning currents have a very fast rise time , on the order of 40 kA per microsecond. Hence, although lightning is a form of direct current , conductors of such currents exhibit marked skin effect as with an alternating current , causing most of the ...
The shot was taken on March 27, 2023 at 21.43 UTC from Possagno, TV, Italy. The lightning that triggered it was in Polverigi, AN, Italy, at a distance of 285 km. Its strength, estimated at about 410 kA (kilo-Ampère), which is an order of magnitude stronger than a normal lightning (10 to 30 kilo-Ampère), generated an intense electromagnetic pulse.
World map showing frequency of lightning strikes, in flashes per km 2 per year (equal-area projection). Lightning strikes most frequently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Combined 1995–2003 data from the Optical Transient Detector and 1998–2003 data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor.
When a sufficiently large positive lightning strike carries charges to the ground, the cloud top is left with a strongly negative net charge. This can be modeled as a quasi-static electric dipole and for less than 10 milliseconds a strong electric field is generated in the region above the thunderstorm.
Global map of lightning frequency--strikes/km 2 /yr. The high lightning areas are on land located in the tropics. Areas with almost no lightning are the Arctic and Antarctic, closely followed by the oceans which have only 0.1 to 1 strikes/km 2 /yr. The map on the right shows that lightning is not distributed evenly around the planet. [5]
A return stroke, cloud-to-ground lightning strike during a thunderstorm. Cloud-to-ground lightning frequently occurs within the phenomena of thunderstorms and have numerous hazards towards landscapes and populations. One of the more significant hazards lightning can pose is the wildfires they are capable of igniting. [54]