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Scientists Measure 1.3-Billion-Volt Thunderstorm, the Strongest on Record (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Scientists in India observed the highest-voltage thunderstorm ever documented with the help of a subatomic particle you might not hear much about: the muon. The researchers operate the GRAPES-3 telescope, which measures muons, particles that are similar to electrons but heavier. Specifically, the Gamma Ray Astronomy at PeV EnergieS Phase-3 (GRAPES-3) muon telescope measures high-energy particles from outer space called cosmic rays. It typically picks up 2.5 million muons each minute, mapped on a 13-by-13 grid across the sky. But during thunderstorms, it experiences quick changes to the amount of muons it receives. The GRAPES-3 researchers added electric field monitors to the experiment, and devised a way to turn these muon fluctuations into measurements of the voltage of passing storms.
A storm on December 1, 2014, led to a relatively enormous 2 percent decrease in the amount of muons that the experiment received. According to their methods, published in Physical Review Letters, this would be equivalent to a 1.3-billion-volt electric potential in the thunderhead. This doesn't refer to a single lightning bolt, but rather the strength of the electric field caused by positively charged water molecules carried by convection to the top of the cloud while negatively charged ice remains lower down. For comparison, most lightning bolts have 100 million volts of electric potential between their ends. Subway tracks carry less than 1,000 volts.
A storm on December 1, 2014, led to a relatively enormous 2 percent decrease in the amount of muons that the experiment received. According to their methods, published in Physical Review Letters, this would be equivalent to a 1.3-billion-volt electric potential in the thunderhead. This doesn't refer to a single lightning bolt, but rather the strength of the electric field caused by positively charged water molecules carried by convection to the top of the cloud while negatively charged ice remains lower down. For comparison, most lightning bolts have 100 million volts of electric potential between their ends. Subway tracks carry less than 1,000 volts.
Just asking for a friend.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Else it's useless.
Apparently these "scientists" still don't understand that correlation does not equal causation. There is still no evidence of a direct link between lightning and electricity, so assigning a voltage value makes absolutely NO sence. This is what you get with a public education and the elimination of bible study in schools today.
If I read the summary correctly, the voltage is the equivalent of 1.3 million subway cars end to end...
How many Naomi Watts is that?
To paraphrase Deb from Dexter: "Holy freakin' fudge! What does this have to do with politics?"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
How do we twist this into some sort of rage inducing global warming bullshit sensationalism?
Enough for the Flux Capacitor (1.21 GigaWatts) ;)
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
So nature has built the world's biggest particle accelerator.
When I was a kid, we didn't have any of these newfangled muons. We had to make do with our old mu mesons, and we liked it just fine that way.
See that "Preview" button?
They had the chance to honestly write "1.3 gigavolts" and said, 'Nah. Not today."
Your mom's dildo?
/ where did these your mom jokes come from?
Climate change must be stopped!
Thor takes a back seat to no Marvel character.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
So the energy produced in this storm is about equivalent to the static discharge from petting 43 cats.
thunderstorm voltage trends, if any. I follow weather in the news, and it sure seems
to me things are changing in 'interesting' ways. Hurricanes don't get higher winds so
much as they get bigger and slower and sometimes happen in the middle of the
US in the dead of winter. Things are getting wetter. More hail is falling. So what
happens if this all gets 2x or 5x worse? That much more lightning could be a problem.
can the energy from lightning be captured and stored for future use? seems like a common, reliable natural energy source.
The Mooer.