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Scientists have looked at what causes a strange electrical phenomenon called blue lightning. The instruments of the International Space Station did what was impossible for terrestrial scientists. According to the Science News breakdown, blue jets – which shoot up clouds of lightning into the stratosphere, rather than down to the ground – have been observed by scientists and pilots for years, but without having a view from above lightning clouds, finding the cause or source was difficult. Since most pilots will tell you that flying through an active storm cloud is not ideal unless it is absolutely necessary, this limits the viewing options.
The blue jet gets its name from its color and derives its color from what it burns in the atmosphere. Traditional lightning interacts with a wide variety of gases on its way to the ground, but the upward movement of the blue jets means that the electric bolt primarily burns nitrogen, which burns blue at that temperature.
According to Science News, blue jets can reach altitudes of around 50 kilometers in less than a second.
Scientists finally have a clear view of the spark that sets off an exotic type of lightning called a blue jet.
The Space Station last week spotted a blue jet emerging from an extremely brief and bright explosion of electricity that occurred near the top of a thundercloud. Scientists reported the discovery on January 20.
While blue jets and other upper atmosphere weather events are unlikely to cause serious injury to people or animals, scientists monitor and study them not only for the academic understanding of the natural world, but also for more reasons. practice; such events can impact the way radio waves travel, satellites and other communication technologies.
Scientists are trying to figure out what could be special about the sparks that generate the blue jets. The explosion reported in January – and recorded in February 2019 – was a 10 microsecond flash of bright blue light, which took place near the top of the cloud, about 10 miles high.
Torsten Neubert, an atmospheric physicist at the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby quoted in the Science News article, suspects that the spark may have been a unique type of short-range electric shock inside the cloud. This would explain the brief and intense explosion, because while traditional lightning is caused by discharges between oppositely charged objects several miles apart, these short-term sparks could bring oppositely charged areas within a mile, creating powerful bursts of current that would burn. fast. The evidence for these bursts is not new, but it could provide new insight into the phenomenon.
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