"Gigantic Jets" Blast Electricity Into the Ionosphere

New Scientist has an update on the so-called "gigantic jets" first discovered in 2003 — these are lightning bolts that reach from cloud tops upward into the ionosphere, as high as 90 kilometers. (There's a video at the link.) What's new is that researchers from Duke University have managed to measure the electrical discharge from a gigantic jet and confirm that they carry as much energy skyward as ordinary lightning strikes carry to the ground. According to the article, "Gigantic jets are one of a host of new atmospheric phenomena discovered in recent years. Other examples are sprites and blue jets."

Comments

Re:Sprites

[calidoscope]

The first indications that I saw of cloud to ionosphere discharges was in QST in the 1980's - someone had shown a very good correlation between major T-storm activity and sporadic E skip above 50MHz. When I saw the first reports of sprites in the mid-1990's, my first thought was "this explains sporadic E-skip".

Re:Question

[armanox]

Use html for formatting. /> gives you a line break.

Re:Sprites

[khayman80]

I am seeing more and more surprises like this that are not really surprising from alternative viewpoints, such as the Electric Universe (I said those two words, so I guess that makes me automatically Flamebait eh?). The same thing can be found by regarding the solar wind as an electrical current instead of viewing it in mechanical terms. The solar wind is the flow of charged particles from the Sun. "The flow of charged particles" is the very definition of an electric current but mainstream science doesn't regard the solar wind (or any other celestial phenomena) in those terms.

As I mention here, the solar wind is electrically neutral. The Sun isn't "electric." It's a giant ball of fusing hydrogen and helium, and the solar wind is primarily thermally-driven (with exceptions due to solar flares, etc.)

You're not flamebait, just confused or seriously lacking in graduate physics education. The Electric Universe idea has been disproven for many years. It's fair to say that it isn't science, but rather a conspiracy theory promoted by people who don't understand physics (or science) very well.

In addition to my critique, Tim Thompson has rebutted the electric sun idea in depth, and W.T. Bridgman examines the idea in detail on his site "Dealing with Creationism in Astronomy." Unfortunately, my internet connection is screwed up so I can't provide direct links to these articles at the moment.

Re:Error?

[Anonymous Coward]

1 Coulomb is a charge, not a current. Not a terribly big charge either. A "gold cap" 1F capacitor charged to 1V holds 1C. Discharging 1C at an extreme voltage in a very short time, now that's impressive.

Re:Sprites

[khayman80]

After rebooting the router, I can give you W.T. Bridgman's review of "The Electric Sky" and Tim Thompson's review of the electric sun idea, and a follow-up.

Re:Sprites

[khayman80]

After rebooting the router, I can give you W.T. Bridgman's review of "The Electric Sky" and Tim Thompson's review of the electric sun idea, and a follow-up.

Re:HAARP

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, that was an interesting description. You might note that any US auroral research is best performed in Alaska more for reasons of auroral proximity than prying eyes -- and there are a number of US citizens in Alaska, anyway.

But, while I find myself unable to share your paranoia (the ability for humans to perceive false correlation with such things is legendary -- ask the 1000s of hams whose neighbors suddenly "start" suffering TV interference when they see a new tower put up), that is a very interesting facility -- 3.6MW of RF is nothing to sneeze at, and pumping the ionosphere with HF to transmit ELF is damn cool. Thanks for the info, and here's a link for others who may be interested.

73 de ab9ul

Re:Question

[TheThiefMaster]

Only xhtml has the "/" in the <br> tag