NTT has developed the world’s first drone-based system capable of triggering and guiding lightning strikes. The technology provides a mobile platform to protect critical infrastructure and may support future research into capturing and storing lightning energy.
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have found evidence linking lightning initiation in thunderstorms to cosmic ray showers, which could be the key to solving the mystery of what causes lightning to start in thunderstorms.
A team of researchers from the Departments of Geosciences, Atmospheric Sciences, and Statistics at Innsbruck has reported a doubling in the number of detected lightning strikes in the high altitudes of the European Eastern Alps over the last 40 years.
Observations from NASA's storm-chasing aircraft DC-8 reveal that lightning can produce extremely high concentrations of two major oxidants that help clear the air and the atmosphere. In May and June 2012, the DC-8 jet flew through the eye of thunderstorms over…
Two new studies show that the brightest lightning events on Earth called "superbolts" can be more than 1 000 times brighter than normal lightning flashes. The findings could help scientists understand these mysterious flashes better, improving safety…
A new study, published this week in Nature, shows that thunderstorms can also produce radioactivity by triggering nuclear reactions in the atmosphere. This may sound like the plot of a blockbuster science fiction disaster. But in reality, it’s nothing to worry…
A new scientific paper suggests that lightning on Earth may be vastly more powerful than conventional science has ever suggested. Investigators sought to answer how much energy is in a terrestrial bolt of lightning through the study of fulgurites, which are hollow…
At a rock outcropping in southern France, a jagged fracture runs along the granite. The surface in and around the crevice is discolored black, as if wet or covered in algae. But, according to a new paper coauthored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Reto
