Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Lightning is a natural phenomenon that usually appears during the rainy season. When lightning appeared in the sky a flash of light appeared, then a roar was heard. Lightning moves through the air between the clouds. The lightning that appeared also moved from the clouds to the ground. The appearance of lightning starts from cumulonimbus and stratiform clouds.
Cumulonimbus is a towering thick cloud. The stratiform are clouds that cause continuous rain. These clouds are formed due to large-scale air rises by convergent front lines (convergence) or the state of the Earth's surface in an area (topography), quoted from the Journal of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, lightning occurs when positive and negative charges in a cloud move continuously until they separate. Usually, there is a large positive charge at the top of the cloud. Large negative charge in the middle. As for the small positive charge at the bottom.
Lightning from the cloud to the ground occurs due to the initial breakdown process within the cloud, usually between the negative charge region in the center and the positive charge below it. This process causes ionization, which is the conversion of atoms and molecules in the air to become electrically charged.
After the ionization process, initial lightning strikes will form and gradually propagate towards the ground. These strikes are generally negatively charged. This sequence occurs so rapidly that one visible flash of lightning may consist of three or four strikes. The strike process will release 105 joules of energy per meter. This sudden loss of radiant energy breaks air molecules, especially nitrogen, oxygen, and water, into atoms. The change from a neutral air molecule to an ionized gas occurs in just a few microseconds.
Although lightning is a common phenomenon during the rainy season, it is still a natural flash of electricity that can harm humans. When lightning occurs, people should not be outside and avoid contact with electrical equipment in the open. Some buildings also have lightning rods installed to intercept natural lightning strikes.
Lead image from unsplash.
Joule is equal to the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton displaces a mass through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force applied -such a cool unit of energy! Thanks for posting!!