While lightning strikes are natural and extremely common spectacles, superbolt lightning only takes up less than 1% of the whole number of lightning strikes.
What Is Superbolt Lightning?
Superbolt lightning is a thousand times stronger compared to average lightning strikes. They are the Earth's most powerful type of lightning. Their discharges are too strong to be lab-replicated.
The exact reason behind their immense power has remained a long-standing mystery. What makes them even more mysterious is that they appear to exhibit seasonal and geographic characteristics that are opposite to typical lightning.
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What Makes Superbolt Lightning So Powerful?
To delve deeper into this mysterious power, a new study focused on the mechanisms behind the intense levels of voltage that a superbolt lightning has. The study was conducted by researchers from Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as from the University of Washington.
The researchers looked into global lightning strike data that dated to 2010 to 2018. They did so by making use of the World Wide Lightning Location Network. They mapped various kinds of information against lightning strength. The data they covered included surface height of land and water, charging zone height, cloud formation varying temperatures, and aerosol concentrations within the clouds. Though these have been objects of focused in previous studies, no one pieced together a massive picture like this.
The study dinfs that when the electrical charging zone of a storm cloud is closer to the land or ocean surface, it boosts the likelihood of superbolts taking place. The cloud's charging zone in the upper area is where electrification occurs.
These results coincide with earlier research that pinpointed that the Mediterranean Sea, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, and the Altiplano plateau are areas where superbolts were recorded more frequently. All of these areas share close proximity between charging zones and ocean or mountain surfaces.
This can be explained by how charging zones produce at levels beyond zero degrees celsius air temperature. Cool air looming atop oceans brings the zero degree Celsius level nearer to the surface. Mountains with high altitudes, on the other hand, force air rise. This then cools and brings the zero degree Celsius nearer to the surface.
Generally, the notion is that closer proximity entails lesser resistance to electricity. As a result, a higher current and stronger lightning bolts would result.
Physicist Avichay Efraim, who is from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explains that the correlation they observed was significant and clear, adding that it was thrilling to observe it across three different regions. Efraim notes that the findings serve as a major scientific breakthrough.
In times when superbolt lightning hits, they may lead to grave damage to buildings and ships. Hence, the findings could help predict when superbolt lightnings have higher likelihoods of striking.
Another concern involved in the study is climate change. It is necessary for scientists to see if global warming would lead to less or more superbolt lightning strikes and how temperature and moisture changes could affect this.
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