Lightning
Light! What is it? Where does it come from? What can we do with it to help humanity? It allows us to see the unknown the places that have been dark for years. It helps us see what is around us. Different sources of light can be used to power the things around us. Lightning is a source of light.
Lightning is an electrostatic discharge between two electrically charge regions with in the clouds and surface of a planet. The charged regions within the atmosphere equalize themselves through a flash of lightning referred to as a strike. There are three types of lightning from the clouds, intra-cloud; is from a cloud to itself, cloud to cloud; from one cloud to another, and cloud to ground . Earth, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are the only planets in our solar system were lightning occurs. Cloud to ground lightning is the most common of the three types. Around 100 strikes a second and each bolt can contain up to on e billion volts of electricity. It also produces a lot of heat. A single flash can heat the surrounding air up to five times hotter that the surface of the sun. This causes the air to expand and vibrate causing thunder shortly after the flash. Lightning is not only an amazing sight but it is also extremely dangerous. About 2,000 people die worldwide from a lightning strike every year and hundreds more have life-long issues such as memory loss, dizziness, numbness.
Electrical Storms
When an electrical storm occurs the clouds are like giant capacitors. The upper part has a positive charge and the lower has a negative charge. Though no one in the scientific community can agree on the way the clouds get their charge most believe that it happens during the water cycle. As odd as it may seem the clouds can hold mill...
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...f ionized air is called a step leader. Meanwhile, the positive charge is getting bigger on the Earth’s surface below objects and including people respond locally to this strong electric field by sending out positive streamers. When a streamer and a step leader meet, they can form a complete path for lightning to travel from the cloud to the ground. After this fateful meeting, the lightning strike occurs. Lastly the air around the strike heats up and expands so that it causes a shock wave in the form of a sound wave to radiate away from the strike path (thunder).
Sources
Zavisa, John. "How Lightning Works." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 01 Apr. 2000. Web. 14 Feb. 2014
"Lightning." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids." Weather Wiz Kids Weather Information for Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014
"Weather History for Hartford, CT." Weather Forecast & Reports. Weather Underground, n.d. Web. 03 June 2014.
It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
Now that the history is covered, I can get down to the nitty gritty of how they are able to appear in the sky. Auroras are caused by the collision of e...
As evening approached, several thunderstorms began to take on the characteristics of a supercell thunderstorm. Supercells, which are intense, broadly rotating thunderstorms, are the most v...
Most people growing up have seen the iconic image of Franklin and his son holding the string of a kite while in a thunderstorm. This experiment allowed him to prove the electrical nature of lightening by trapping it in a jar. Another great invention of his was the lightening rod which would allow a building or structure to take a lightening strike and not burn to the ground. The theory behind this invention was to have a pointed metal rod pointed into the air and have a wire attached to it running to the ground. Doing this would allow the electricity from the lightening strike to follow the wire and safely into the ground. These rods are still being utilized today on all types of structures (Chaplin, 2007).
A study was done to understand the effects of thundersnow within lake effect snow events which took place between 1995 through 2007. What the study observed was that the majority of cloud to ground lightning occurred in lake effect storms during the late fall and early winter months. Twenty-seven percent of storms however occurred between the January through March period. BUFKIT was used in this study to determine the environment that would be required for lightning to occur in these storms. “The presence of the layer from -10 to -25 C within the predicted lake-effect cloud layer (lake-induced LCL to EL analyzed within BUFKIT) appears to be necessary, but not sufficient, condition for CG lightning to occur; values over 500 J/kg of lake induced CAPE much also be present for CG lightning initiation.”
NWS Internet Services Team. "Glossary - NOAA's National Weather Service."Glossary - NOAA's National Weather Service. National Weather Service, 25 June 2009. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
Then within a few minutes a dramatic change is seen in the sky. A hailstorm
A thunderstorm can produce some soothing sounds as it passes overhead. The light rain tapping at one’s window provides a comforting pattern for resting. The sound of thunder sounds like volleys of cannons being fired repeatedly in the distance. One knows the fire is hard at work by the crackling of the flames. One can hear the whistling wind sweeping the corners of your house repeatedly.
In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British Astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous flow (they are never ending basically) of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual way out of the sun is the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought of by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It is so hot that not even the sun’s gravity can contain it. It heats gases and makes them expand. The gas items run into each other as they are heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then, the atoms become ions with a positive charge, the electrons and ions (which are mostly Hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The velocity of solar winds goes from 250 to 1000 kilometers every second. It has a density of 82 ions for every cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds are the cause of many occurrences in the solar system like Mercury having no atmosphere, and Venus’ acidic, radiation filled clouds. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes.
A form of electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength, which human eyes have the ability of detecting is known as light. Light is a form of energy, that stimulates sight and makes objects visible. Light, mostly electrical light, plays an extremely important role in today’s modern society, as it is an important form of energy that allows humans to live the convenient life they currently live. One of the obvious uses of light energy in one’s daily life is to provide light, allowing one to see their surroundings and avoid living and working in the dark. Electric light is the most used form of artificial light, and is found to be used in almost everything, from providing interior lighting for building and houses, to providing exterior light for nighttime
the sun's harmful rays. Possibly a cure for cancer, and people are treating these living
Light: the quantum phenomenon that provides luminous energy for our world. Radiant energy is why we can observe a twinkling star in the night sky, perceive colors from a painting, distinguish daytime and nighttime, and witness life itself.
6. NRA | ABOUT US. (n.d.). NRA | ABOUT US. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://home.nra.org/home/document/about
Currency Fluctuation, What is Currency Fluctuation, 2014. Available at: http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-currency-fluctuations.htm Retrieved at 6th April 2014