Scientists Reveal New Info on 'Giant Jets' of Lightning in the Atmosphere - PetaPixel

In 2017, an astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS) managed to capture footage of the phenomenon that allowed scientists to gain a new perspective on the electrical activity that takes place on top of tropical thunderstorms.

But now scientists have captured new footage of a massive giant jet of lightning that originated above an Oklahoma thunderstorm and is one of the most powerful gigantic jets studied so far.

The jet was captured on camera by a nearby citizen scientist armed with a low-light camera and while the footage isn’t as striking as the clip captured by Homes in 2019 — Holmes’ video is still used as the primary visual reference for the phenomenon — a new study published last week in Science Advances by lead author Levi Boggs says that it provided never-before-seen details about these massive atmospheric phenomenons.

But in addition to the massive electrical charge these jets emit, this particular giant jet perplexed Boggs because it did not take place where these jets are normally observed.

“This allowed the parent storm to accumulate a significant amount of electric charge, which enabled the gigantic jet to transfer the largest amount of charge on record to the ionosphere (300 coulombs).”.

“The charge transfer is nearly double the previous largest by a gigantic jet and is comparable to the largest ever recorded for cloud-to-ground strokes,” the study explains.