I was just watching this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-164435864948236276
Showing lighting as viewed from space. And I couldn't help feeling a resemblance to some cosmic ray activity I used to see in spark chambers at Brookhaven National Laboratories. It seems somehow reasonable that if electrical charge had built up in an area and was 'ready to spark anyway' that the ionized trail left by a passing cosmic ray of sufficient energy might act as the final catalyst to a lightning stroke.
2006-07-15 09:04:11 · 4 answers · asked by samsyn 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Yes they can. It's called a runaway electon avalanche. Very, very well supported by electric field data as well as X-ray and gamma-ray emmissions observed just before lightning flashes.
Of course cosmic rays don't power the lightning, they just initiate the breakdown in many cases.
The electric fields observed in thunderstorms are simply insufficient to cause breakdown on their own.
You might google the following keywords: runaway + breakdown + Gurevich
2006-07-15 10:20:55 · answer #1 · answered by Ethan 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes. If the electric field strength was close to breakdown, it would be exactly the same situation as in a spark chamber. When I was teaching science at high school, we improvised a geiger counter by connecting a neon tube to a variable voltage DC supply. We turned the voltage up until the tube was nearly ready to light up, then brought up a jar of thorium nitrate, which is weakly radioactive and the tube lit up. Same situation.
2006-07-15 15:29:09 · answer #2 · answered by zee_prime 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, it is caused by static electricity builds up until the telsar affect comes into play-huge sparks(lightning)
2006-07-15 09:10:34 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no
2006-07-15 09:07:10 · answer #4 · answered by joe_smo_red 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋