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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.
Speculations of Jean-Antoine Nollet had led to the issue of the electrical nature of lightning being posed as a prize question at Bordeaux in 1749. In 1750, it was the subject of public discussion in France with a dissertation of Denis Barberet receiving a prize in Bordeaux. Barberet proposed a cause in line with the triboelectric effect.
Photinus pyralis, also known by the common names the common eastern firefly [3] or big dipper firefly, [4] and sometimes called a "lightning bug", [5] is a species of flying beetle. An organ on its abdomen is responsible for its light production. [ 6 ]
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
Sprites have been observed over North America, [9] Central America, South America, [10] Europe, [11] Central Africa , Australia, the Sea of Japan and Asia and are believed to occur during most large thunderstorm systems. Rodger (1999) categorized three types of sprites based on their visual appearance. [1]
Franklin's friend Kinnersley traveled throughout the eastern United States in the 1750s demonstrating man-made "lightning" on model thunder houses to show a how an iron rod placed into the ground would protect a wooden structure. He explained that lightning followed the same principles as the sparks from Franklin's electrostatic machine.
In 1749 he had documented the similar properties of lightning and electricity, such as that both an electric spark and a lightning flash produced light and sound, could kill animals, cause fires, melt metal, destroy or reverse the polarity of magnetism, and flowed through conductors and could be concentrated at sharp points. He was later able ...
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.