Lightning Varieties
- By Peter Tyson
- Posted 10.01.05
- NOVA scienceNOW
The array of lightning types is almost as dizzying as a good lightning storm. Beyond the familiar cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strokes, our world knows volcanic lightning and nuclear lightning, blue jets and red sprites, and other types even more fanciful, as this slide show reveals.
Credits
Images
- (cloud-to-ground lightning)
- Courtesy NOAA
- (cloud discharge, ball lightning)
- Courtesy Wikipedia.org
- (blue jet)
- Courtesy Patricia Huett
- (red sprite)
- Courtesy D. D. Sentman, University of Alaska
- (elves diagram)
- Courtesy Walt Lyons
- (volcanic lightning)
- Courtesy Sakurajima Volcano Observatory
- (atomic lightning)
- Courtesy U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
- (triggered lightning)
- Courtesy University of Florida Lightning Research Group
Related Links
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Experts still aren't sure what triggers lightning, but they suspect cosmic rays from outer space.
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It's like a giant spark in the sky, though with a few puzzling differences.
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Lightning expert Joe Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology answers questions about nature's brightest flashes.
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