‘super rays’ They are not an element of fantasy films, but they exist and, moreover, they are close to us because The Mediterranean is one of the three places on the planet where they occur most frequently. They are rare but dangerous. ‘Super lightning’ is produced when the loading zone of the storm is close to the earth’s surface. 1000 times denser than normal.
This is the conclusion of an investigation into the ‘so-called’.super bolts‘ (Super lightning strikes, in English) represent only 1 percent of the total lightning strikes recorded, but can cause damage to infrastructure and even ships.
” super bolts“Although they represent only a very small percentage of all lightning strikes, they are a spectacular phenomenon,” Avichay Efraim, a physicist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and lead author of this study, said in a statement. said.
A 2019 report found that: ‘Superrays’ tend to cluster over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Altiplano in Peru and BoliviaIt is one of the highest plateaus on Earth. “We wanted to know what makes this powerful phenomenon more likely to occur in some places than others,” Efraim said.
The new study provides the first description of the formation and distribution of ‘super lightning’ on land and at sea worldwide. The research was published in the journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
How does lightning occur?
storm clouds They usually reach altitudes of 12 to 18 kilometers and cover a wide temperature range. However, for lightning to occur, a cloud must pass the line where the air temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius. Above the frost line, electrification occurs in the upper parts of the cloud and forms the “charge zone” of lightning.
Efraim wondered whether changes in the height of the freezing line and subsequent changes in the height of the loading zone would affect the storm’s ability to generate superlightning. And this Previous studies It focused on investigating whether the strength of these events was affected by marine aerosol, emissions from shipping routes, ocean salinity, or even desert dust, but these studies were limited to regional bodies of water and could only explain part of the event at most. Regional distribution of superrays. A global explanation of the critical points of these phenomena was still pending.
To learn What causes ‘super rays’ to cluster in certain areas?Efraim and his co-authors needed to know the time, location and energy of specific lightning bolts, which they obtained through an array of radio wave detectors.
They used this lightning data to extract key features of storm environments, including land and water surface elevations, loading zone elevations, cloud base and top temperatures, and lightning concentrations and aerosol sprays. They then investigated the correlations between each of these factors and the strength of the superbeam and gained insight into what causes the stronger beams.
The closer to the surface the denser it is
The researchers found that, unlike previous studies, aerosols had no significant effect on the strength of ‘superbeams’. In its place, A shorter distance between the charging zone and the land or water surface results in significantly more energetic beams.
Near-surface storms allow higher energy lightning to occur because shorter distance generally means less electrical resistance and therefore higher current. And higher current means stronger beams.
The three regions where super lightning strikes occur the most (northeast Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Altiplano) They have one thing in common: lightning loading zones and short gaps between surfaces.
Knowing that a shorter distance between a surface and the cloud’s charging zone produces more super lightning will help scientists determine how lightning forms. Changes in climate may affect the future occurrence of these giant lightning bolts. Efraim said higher temperatures could cause an increase in weaker rays, but more moisture in the atmosphere could prevent this, but he explained there’s still no definitive answer.
In the future, the team plans to explore other factors that may contribute to the formation of superrays, such as changes in the magnetic field or solar cycle.
Reference work: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JD038254
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