Lightnings and their types

during a thunderstorm, manifested by a bright flash of light and accompanying thunder.

What is lightning?

The current in a lightning discharge on Earth reaches 10-500 thousand amperes, the voltage ranges from tens of millions to a billion volts.

and the ground. It is initiated by a stepped leader moving down from the cloud, which is met by a streamer moving up from the ground.

CG is the least common, but best understood of all types of lightning. Of the three primary types of lightning, it poses the greatest threat to life and property since it terminates or "strikes" the Earth.

the escaping electrons. Thus, electronic avalanches arise, passing into threads of electrical discharges, known as streamers, which are well-conducting channels, which, merging, give rise to a bright thermionized channel with high conductivity, called a stepped lightning leader.

As the leader moves towards the ground, the intensity of the field at its end increases and, under its action, a response streamer is thrown out of objects protruding on the surface of the Earth, connecting with the leader. This lightning feature is used to create a lightning rod.

without contacting the ground. When it occurs between two separate clouds, it is known as cloud-to-cloud (CC) or inter-cloud lightning; when it occurs between areas of differing electric potential within a single cloud, it is known as intra-cloud (IC) lightning. IC lightning is the most frequently occurring type.

as its height increases and with an increase in the electrical conductivity of the soil on the surface or at some depth. If there is an electric field in the cloud that is sufficient to maintain the discharge, but insufficient for its occurrence, a long metal cable or an airplane can perform the role of lightning initiator - especially if it is highly electrically charged. Thus, lightning is sometimes "provoked" in layered rain and powerful cumulus clouds.

thermosphere, directed upwards, downwards and horizontally, are very poorly studied. They are divided into sprites, jets and “elves”. The color of the flashes and their shape depends on the height at which they occur. Unlike lightning observed on Earth, these flashes have a bright color, usually red or blue, and cover large spaces in the upper atmosphere, and sometimes extend to the border with space.

Lightnings in the upper atmosphere.

of about 400 km, which appear directly from the top of the thundercloud. The height of the elves can reach 100 km, the duration of the flashes is up to 5 ms (on average 3 ms).

can reach 40-70 km (the lower boundary of the ionosphere), the duration of the jets is longer than that of the elves.

Jets.