AI Insight
Research led by physicist Joseph Dwyer and others has challenged the long-standing but incomplete conventional model of lightning initiation, which could not fully explain how electrical discharges overcome the high resistance of air. Emerging evidence points to the role of cosmic rays and high-energy particle showers called electron avalanches, particularly a phenomenon known as relativistic runaway electron avalanches, as a potential triggering mechanism for lightning in thunderstorms. These findings suggest that the origin of lightning is a fundamentally high-energy physics problem, not merely an atmospheric one, connecting Earth's weather to particles originating from deep space.
Why it matters
A clearer understanding of lightning initiation could improve forecasting models, enhance safety protocols for aviation, infrastructure, and space launches, and deepen our knowledge of atmospheric electricity on Earth and potentially on other planets.
Before he changed the way we understand lightning on Earth, Joseph Dwyer studied the weather in more cosmic settings. Using the sensors on NASA’s Wind satellite, orbiting a million miles away, he watched flares shoot out from the sun and analyzed the particles that stream from the sun’s surface. But when he relocated to Florida around the turn of the millennium, Dwyer felt ready for something new…
Source: What Causes Lightning? The Answer Keeps Getting More Interesting.