Abstract
Over the last few decades it has been shown in numerous studies, using different observational approaches that although less frequent, lightning over the oceans is significantly more intense than over land. To study this difference we set up a laboratory experiment in which we examined the flash intensity of generated lightning strikes as a function of the salinity of the water into which they were discharged. Our experiments clearly showed that the intensity of lightning increased exponentially with the concentration of dissolved salts in the water. We hypothesize that the higher conductivity of the saline water, compared to moist soil, results in a more efficient charge transfer to the surface, resulting in larger peak current discharges and brighter optical flashes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105259 |
| Journal | Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics |
| Volume | 202 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the Technical team at Ruppin academic center Mr. Yosi Moas and Mr. Asher Azoli. Special thanks to Dr. Sharon Shwartz and Mr. Sason Sofer from BIU. Special thanks to Dani Ramot (Fritzi) from IOLR for his invaluable help with the electronical aspects of the experimental setup. This work was supported by the Research Authority Ruppin academic center .
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Technical team at Ruppin academic center Mr. Yosi Moas and Mr. Asher Azoli. Special thanks to Dr. Sharon Shwartz and Mr. Sason Sofer from BIU. Special thanks to Dani Ramot (Fritzi) from IOLR for his invaluable help with the electronical aspects of the experimental setup. This work was supported by the Research Authority Ruppin academic center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- lightning
- ocean land difference
- salinity