Scientists Investigate Upside-Down Lightning Bolt That Touched the Edge of Space - CNET

It's considered the most powerful of its kind studied so far, carrying an estimated 300 coulombs of electrical charge, a whopping 100 times more than typical lightning bolts hold. .

In 2013, NASA added an experiment to the ISS in order to help get a better, more actively placed look at the scene above cloud tops so we can catch gigantic jets in action.

Basically, lightning bolts emanating from thunderstorm clouds are produced by a combination of leaders and streamers.

Leaders are the result of electrical charge differences that help develop lightning, and streamers are found at the very tip of those developing bolts

The new study's researchers first of all definitively saw the gigantic jet-producing leaders and streamers were situated above the thunderstorm cloud during Oklahoma's event, rather than toward the bottom where they'd normally be found

"Those cold streamers start their propagation right above the cloud top," Boggs explained

"In the absence of the lightning discharges we normally see, the gigantic jet may relieve the buildup of excess negative charge in the cloud."