Other attributes
Lightning
Lightning is an electrical spark discharge in the atmosphere that occurs during a thunderstorm, manifested by a bright flash of light and accompanying thunder. Lightning has also been recorded on Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, etc. Current intensity in the lightning discharge on the Earth reaches 10-500 thousand amperes, voltage - from tens of millions to billions of volts.
The longest lightning was recorded in 2020 on the border of Mississippi and Texas, its length was 768 km. The longest lightning was recorded in Argentina, its duration was 17.1 seconds. The record high potential difference during a thunderstorm of 1.3 GV was recorded in 2014
History of study Lightning 1882 (c) Photographer: William N. Jennings, C. 1882The lightning has been the object of human interest since antiquity. Its dangerous manifestations have been known since ancient times. In paganism, lightning was considered the activity of the most powerful gods: Zeus in Greek mythology, Perun in Slavic mythology. Being struck by lightning was considered a god's punishment. Accordingly, certain rituals and ceremonies were performed to protect against lightning. From antique and Slavic mythology idea of lightning as an instrument of divine activity has passed to Christianity. In spite of perception of lightning as manifestation of supreme forces, nevertheless already in antiquity certain regularities in striking objects by lightning were revealed. Thales already described that lightning most often strikes tall free-standing objects. In the Middle Ages lightning often caused fires in wooden cities, which gave rise to the rule that you can not build houses above the temple. Temples, usually located on high ground, acted as lightning rods in these cases. It was also noticed that metallized (in those years - mostly gilded) domes were less often struck by lightning.A great impulse in the study of lightning was given by the development of seafaring. Firstly, seafarers encountered thunderstorms of unprecedented strength on the land; secondly, they discovered that thunderstorms were unevenly distributed over geographical latitudes; thirdly, they noticed that when lightning struck nearby, the compass arrow experienced strong disturbances; fourthly, they clearly linked the appearance of the lights of Saint Elmo and an approaching thunderstorm. In addition, it was the sailors who first noticed that phenomena similar to those that occur when glass or wool is electrified by friction appeared before a thunderstorm.The development of physics in the XVII-XVIII centuries allowed to put forward a hypothesis about the connection between lightning and electricity. In particular, such a view was held by M. V. Lomonosov. The electrical nature of lightning was disclosed in the studies of American physicist B. Franklin, whose idea was the experiment to extract electricity from a thunderstorm cloud. Franklin's experience in elucidating the electrical nature of lightning is widely known. In 1750 he published a paper describing an experiment using a kite launched into a thunderstorm. By the beginning of the XIX century, most scientists no longer doubted the electrical nature of lightning (although there were alternative hypotheses, for example, chemical) and the main research questions were the mechanism of electricity generation in thunderclouds and the parameters of the lightning discharge.In 1989, were discovered special types of lightning in the upper atmosphere: elves and sprites. In 1995 another type of lightning in the upper atmosphere - jets - was discovered.At the end of the 20th century when studying lightning new physical phenomena were discovered - breakdown on escaping electrons and photonuclear reactions under the influence of gamma-radiation of lightning discharge.To study lightning physics methods of observation from satellites are used.