Dark lightning - electrical discharges in the Earth's atmosphere with a duration of 0.2–3.5 ms , which generate particles with energies up to 20 MeV , which, according to researchers [1] , are the reason for the temporary failure of satellite sensors in low Earth orbits. Unlike ordinary lightning, these electrical discharges in the atmosphere produce very little radiation in the visible spectral range and are almost invisible in the cloud layer.
Content
The nature of the phenomenon
According to the model proposed by the researchers, in contrast to ordinary lightning , when the transfer of electric charges from a cloud to the ground or to another part of the cloud is performed by slow electrons , in dark lightning , charge transfer is carried out by high-speed electrons [2] . When they collide with air molecules, gamma rays are generated, which in turn give rise to electron-positron pairs . In turn, when positrons collide with air molecules, they annihilate and generate new gamma-quanta, which are detected by sensors as gamma-ray bursts of terrestrial origin, and also cause a temporary failure of the sensors on satellites. The process of discharge of the accumulated electrostatic energy in the Earth’s atmosphere with the help of “dark lightning” occurs much faster than with conventional lightning.
See also
- Atmospheric electricity
- Lightning
Notes
- ↑ A group of scientists led by physicist Joseph Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology (USA), which gave the phenomenon they study the name “Dark Lightning”.
- ↑ with near-relativistic speeds, that is, comparable to the speed of light .
Links
- Florida Tech Professors Present Dark Side of Dark Lightning / Florida Institute of Technology, April 10, 2013
- Alexander Berezin “Dark lightning gives rise to antimatter and gamma radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere” // Kompyulenta, April 11, 2013
- Alexander Berezin “Dark lightning can accompany light” // “Kompyulenta”, April 25, 2013
- SCIENTISTS DISCOVER EVIDENCE OF DARK LIGHTNING , Popular Science, Apr 9th, 2013
- ScienceCasts: Dark Lightning , video from NASA, Jan 7, 2013