New research suggests lightning on Earth is triggered by solar wind,
Researchers noticed a link between an increase in instances of lightning across Europe for about 40 days after high-speed solar winds hit Earth, an Institute of Physics news release reported.
The researchers are still unsure of exactly why this occurs, but they believe it could have something to do with a change in the electrical properties of the air.
"Our main result is that we have found evidence that high-speed solar wind streams can increase lightning rates. This may be an actual increase in lightning or an increase in the magnitude of lightning, lifting it above the detection threshold of measurement instruments," lead author of the study, Doctor Chris Scott, said in the news release.
"Cosmic rays, tiny particles from across the Universe accelerated to close to the speed of light by exploding stars, have been thought to play a part in thundery weather down on Earth, but our work provides new evidence that similar, if lower energy, particles created by our own Sun also affect lightning," he said.
As the Sun its rotation the stream of particles moves past the Earth in a regular 27-day cycle.
"In increasing our understanding of weather on Earth we are learning more about its important links with space weather. Bringing the topics of Earth Weather and Space Weather ever closer requires more collaborations between atmospheric and space scientists, in which the University of Reading is already leading the way," Professor Giles Harrison, head of Reading's Department of Meteorology and co-author of the article, said in the news release.
To make their findings the researchers looked at lightning strikes that had been recorded in the U.K. between the years of 2000 and 2005. This information was compared with data from NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft.
The team found an average of 422 lightning strikes across the U.K. in the 40 days following the arrival of solar wind, compared to an average of 321 lightning strikes in the 40 days leading up to the wind's arrival.
"We propose that these particles, while not having sufficient energies to reach the ground and be detected there, nevertheless electrify the atmosphere as they collide with it, altering the electrical properties of the air and thus influencing the rate or intensity at which lightning occurs," Dr. Scott said.
WATCH:
