.png)
All of the weather that we experience - including the chemical reaction that is the formation of lightning in thunderclouds - occurs in the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, called the troposphere. As we know, every chemical reaction has a final product whose properties depend on its environment’s factors. For instance, lightning appears in the form of a white flash and has a crispy smell of ozone largely due to the gases making up the troposphere.
But recently, scientists used instruments from the International Space Station to observe a “reverse lightning effect”. Instead of traveling downwards to the ground, lightning left a cloud and jumped upwards to the second layer of the atmosphere (the stratosphere) at over 100,000 mph. Because the gases in the stratosphere are different from those in the troposphere, the lightning’s properties turned out different: it’s blue!
How did it happen? Usually, lightning falls downwards due to a difference in charge between clouds and the ground. However, it is common that clouds of different charges brush by one another as well, forming small short-range flashes. In fact, such phenomena have been documented by pilots and civilians for centuries, and it seems that the large lightning bolt in question is a rare but extreme display of the spectacle. Scientists have not referred to it as anything serious to worry about or even study. It’s just another of nature’s amazing treats!
Comments