Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Discover A New Kind Of Lightning

Posted by timothy on from the zap-zap dept.

Exoman writes "Lightning that shoots upward up to 60 miles from the clouds? A team of researchers led by Han-Tzong Su of the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, videotaped the discharges last July from an observatory on the southern tip of the island. The lightning was firing from the top of thunderclouds more than 300 miles away across the South China Sea. The researchers reported their work Thursday in the journal Nature."

2 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. But I thought... by Trogre · · Score: 2, Redundant

    The conventional ground-to-cloud lightning bolts occur because thunderstorms build up huge surpluses of negatively charged particles near the bottom of clouds while objects on the ground collect a surge of positive charges that eventually come together in a bolt.

    Erm, so are they saying that current now flows from a positively charged source to negative one?

    Man, I can't keep up.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    1. Re:But I thought... by guybarr · · Score: 2, Redundant


      disclaimer: IANASSP (solid-state-phys.)

      The convention is that current flows from + to - .

      This convemntion was set before it was found electrons are current conductors, and they actually flow from - to + , of course.

      That being said, I must add that AFAIK electrical current in metals can also carried by positive "holes" in the electron sea, which flow from + to - .

      Wether such a description can be used in gasous/plasma environment I'm not sure.

      --
      Working for necessity's mother.