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Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is either positive or negative, as defined by the direction of the conventional electric current between cloud and ground. Most CG lightning is negative, meaning that a negative charge is transferred (electrons flow) downwards to ground along the lightning channel (conventionally speaking they flow from the ground ...
A lightning strike or lightning bolt is a lightning event in which an electric discharge takes place between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground-to-cloud (GC) lightning, is upward-propagating lightning ...
Sympathetic lightning is the tendency of lightning to be loosely coordinated across long distances. Discharges can appear in clusters when viewed from space. [22] [23] [24] [clarification needed] Upward lightning or ground-to-cloud lightning is a lightning flash which originates from the top of a grounded object and propagates upward from this ...
Typical broken fulgurite sections. Fulgurites (from Latin fulgur ' lightning ' and -ite), commonly called "fossilized lightning", are natural tubes, clumps, or masses of sintered, vitrified, or fused soil, sand, rock, organic debris and other sediments that sometimes form when lightning discharges into ground.
Cloud-to-ground lightning. Typically, lightning discharges 30,000 amperes, at up to 100 million volts, and emits light, radio waves, x-rays and even gamma rays. [1] Plasma temperatures in lightning can approach 28,000 kelvins. Atmospheric electricity describes the electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet).
The actual phenomenon that is sometimes called heat lightning is simply cloud-to-ground lightning that occurs very far away, with thunder that dissipates before it reaches the observer. [2] At night, it is possible to see the flashes of lightning from very far distances, up to 100 miles (160 km), but the sound does not carry that far. [3]
Lightning is detected remotely using sensors that detect cloud-to-ground lightning strokes with 95 percent accuracy in detection and within 250 metres (820 ft) of their point of origin. [105] Summer storm in 19th-century Polish countryside – picture by Jozef Chelmonski, 1896, 107 cm (42.1 in)x163 cm (64.1 in), National Museum in Cracow
Evidence of lightning activity can often be found in the paleomagnetic record. Lightning strikes are the result of tremendous charge buildup in clouds. This excess charge is transferred to the ground via lightning channels, which carry a strong electric current. Because of the intensity of this electric current, when lightning hits the ground ...