Lightning never strikes twice, so the saying goes, but new technology may allow us to control where it hits the ground, reducing the risk of catastrophic bushfires.
General Physics
Nov 11, 2020
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Imagine lying on a green hill watching the clouds go by on a beautiful day. The clouds you're probably thinking of are cumulous clouds, the ones that resemble fluffy balls of cotton wool. They seem innocent enough. But they ...
Environment
Oct 15, 2020
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Were you aware that earthquakes are sometimes associated with luminescence, called earthquake lightning? This phenomenon had been documented throughout history, such as between 1965 and 1967, the Matsushiro earthquake swarm ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 28, 2020
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Ciska P. J. Scheijen, a conservationist at Rockwood Conservation, a nature park in South Africa, is wondering if giraffes are at greater risk of being struck by lightning due to their great height. In his paper published ...
It began as a stunning light show on a mid-August weekend—lightning bolts crackling in the skies over Northern and Central California, touching down in grasslands and vineyards.
Environment
Sep 17, 2020
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More than 650 wildfires are blazing in California after unprecedented lightning strikes, storms, and a heatwave that has set new records in the state and NASA's Terra satellite captured the smoke-engulfed state on Aug. 24, ...
Environment
Aug 24, 2020
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Striking images of the California wildfires are seen in these nighttime satellite images taken by the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite on Aug. 20, 2020. At approximately 3:01 am PDT, NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP was almost directly ...
Environment
Aug 21, 2020
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New Juno results suggest that the violent thunderstorms taking place in Jupiter's atmosphere may form ammonia-rich hail, or 'mushballs,' that play a key role in the planet's atmospheric dynamics. This theory, developed using ...
Astronomy
Aug 5, 2020
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162
Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama have published dramatic maps showing the locations of lightning strikes across the tropics in Global Change Biology. Based on ground and satellite ...
Ecology
Jul 23, 2020
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Lightning is a spectacular natural phenomenon closely associated with the electrification and discharge of thunderstorms. Different types of thunderstorms correspond to different lightning characteristics and charge structures. ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 9, 2020
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