Posts tagged science

Upwards lightning, otherwise known as ‘gigantic jets’, has been filmed for the first time.

This rare form of lightning occurs when electricity from storm clouds flows upwards into the Earth’s atmosphere.  Similar in strength to your average cloud-to-ground bolts, upwards lightning is known to reach the edge of space.

The research into the lightning has been carried out by US  scientists at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and was published in this month’s edition of industry journal, Nature Geoscience.

‘Gigantic jets’ were first discovered in 2001 and still little is known of them.  As the event happens very quickly, footage has been difficult to obtain. Steven Cummer and his team caught the shots by chance whilst trying to film ’sprites’, another electrical phenomenon, using a low-light video camera focused on the sky over a long period of time.

The film was captured in July 2008 during Tropical Storm Cristobel, in a field near to Duke University’s campus.  The footage is particularly significant as the jet rose to a height of around 65km compared to other sightings at much lower heights.

“The fact that we can see it so clearly when the background sky is quite bright suggests to me that this may be the biggest and brightest jet that has been recorded,” said Mr Cummer.

This article was published on Geeks.co.uk.