As global warming intensifies, more water evaporates from the ocean, causing an increase in the atmospheric water content, resulting in more lightning. For every 1℃ increase in the global average temperature, the number of lightning strikes in the United States will increase by 12%. In addition, climate models in Nordic and Scandinavia show that by 2100, global warming will lead to longer-lasting thunderstorms.
similar situations also occur in the Arctic. Although lightning is very rare in the cold Arctic, this change has had a great impact on the areas within the Arctic Circle of and since 1960 - temperatures have increased by 2 ~ 4 ℃ in parts of the Arctic Circle. According to data from the Global Lightning Positioning Network, the number of lightning in the Arctic Circle increased from 35,000 in 2010 to 250,000 in 2020.
Nowadays, lightning strikes more and more frequently at Arctic tundra , so there are more and more wildfires caused by lightning in the peat swamps in the Arctic. This trend is worrying, as tundra stores carbon in 14% of global underground carbon storage. Frequent peat bog fires will release a large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, aggravating global warming.
In addition to this, the increase in lightning has also warmed Yungu fans. Because air will produce nitrogen oxides under the action of lightning, this is a kind of greenhouse gas , which is seriously harmful to the environment. In daily life, this gas is contained in the exhaust gas emitted by the diesel engine.
According to meteorologists, lightning strikes the ground and produces 8.6 million tons of nitrogen oxides every year. Additionally, lightning travels between clouds and produces about equal amounts of nitrogen oxides. Therefore, World Meteorological Organization has recently added lightning to the list of variables that affect climate and will continue to track and monitor the variables in the list to determine how these variables will affect the Earth's climate.
(excerpted from the popular science magazine "Singularity Science" 2023 magazine subscription https://www.zazhipu.com/)
Mysterious reverse lightning
Mysterious lightning fires upward from the top of the thunderstorm cloud will produce nitrogen oxides unknown. However, there are occasionally two special discharge phenomena in the thunder and rain clouds - " Red Elf " and "Blue Jet". It is difficult for meteorologists to directly observe these two phenomena from the ground, so they don’t know much about these two discharge phenomena. However, with the launch of the Air-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) on the International Space Station, meteorologists have the opportunity to understand them.
ASIM developed by the Denmark National Space Research Institute can observe electromagnetic waves in various bands on the top of the cloud. From visible light to X-rays, and even gamma rays, , are within the observation range of ASIM. ASIM can collect 100,000 data per second, so it can observe fleeting reverse lightning in detail. The "Red Elf" can launch to a height of 90 kilometers in 100 milliseconds, while the "Blue Jet" can reach 40 to 50 kilometers in 400 milliseconds.
In 2021, meteorologists released the "blue jets" that appeared over Nauru Island in the Pacific during thunderstorms. At first, five explosive blue lightning flashes appeared at the top of the clouds, but this only lasted 10 microseconds and disappeared, one of which turned into a dazzling "blue jet" at an altitude of 52 kilometers from the ground.
In the coming years, ASIM will continue to provide meteorologists with detailed data on the "Blue Jets" and "Red Elf" and then uncover their mystery. In addition, ASIM will show us more details about lightning charging "atmospheric batteries".
