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World Map of Lightning Activity

Posted by chrisd on from the maybe-not-a-good-night-to-fly-a-kite dept.

Ian writes "NewScientist.com is >reporting that you can now see the lightning activity on the entire planet Earth at one time. The article states, "The NASA map also shows that lightning very rarely occurs at sea and is almost never seen at the Earth's poles." Anyone care to speculate on why that is?"

4 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. If you are more interested in just the US... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, I know it's sort of egocentric for we Americans, but you can visit http://www.lightningstorm.com/ls2/gpg/lex1/mapdisp lay_free.jsp?jrunsessionid=1007697160371304360 to see recent lightening activity in the continental US. When things are lively, you can see a lot of really nifty patterns with the fronts.

  2. Why lightning strikes are rare over the ocean/pole by billn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It has everything to do with the behavior of static electricity. What were you taught as a kid, should you find yourself in a lightning storm?

    Get out in the open. Stay away from trees.

    Ever look at a lightning rod?

    Static electricity collects at points. The overall lack of geographic features over the ocean pretty much negates most opportunities for static charges to balance themselves between earth and sky, without any points to collect at.

    --
    - billn
  3. Re:My Estimation by dstone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Care to venture a theory as to why there would be gradient patches of BOTH white and grey on that map, then? Maybe grey is where they didn't take measurements, and white is where the really, really didn't take measurements. ;-)

  4. Re:Neat by sphealey · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Thunderstorms are the thing I miss most about the midwest (I'm from Illinois, live in California), but it looks like the "third coast" (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL) is the place to be in the US for lightning.
    Actually, if you Google on National Lightning Detection Network, you will find some information on this topic. When lighting researchers shifted from "thunder days" (as reported by weather station observers using the Mark I Human Ear) to RF-based detection systems, they discovered that the central Midwest had a lightning frequency as high as Florida. Just not as many people around to report it!

    sPh