From the department “We still don't know everything about the weather and the climate” and the Arizona State University:
It was a single flash that roamed 515 miles across the Great Plains, almost to Kansas City from Osttexas and set up a new world record.
“We call it Megaflash Lightning and we are finding the mechanics how and why it is happening,” said Randy Cerveny, professor of the President of the Arizona State University at the School of Geographical Sciences and Town.
Cerveny and colleagues used room -based instruments to measure the megaflash that took place during a large thunderstorm in October 2017. The amazing horizontal range exceeds 38 miles. The previous record of 477 Miles, which was recorded during an April 2020 storm in the south of the south of the new record shortage.
“It is probably still that even larger extremes exist and that we can accumulate them over time as additional high-quality flash measurements,” said Cerveny, who serves as the rapporteur of the weather and air conditioner for the world meteorological organization, the United Nations Weather Agency.
For years, lightning recognition and measurement on ground -based networks of antennas that recognize the radio signals broadcast by lightning and then appreciate the position and travel speed based on time that needs signals to achieve other antenna stations in the network.
Satellite flash detectors in Orbit Since 2017, it has made it possible to continuously identify lightning and to measure precisely in distances on the continental standard.
“Our weather satellites wear very demanding flash recognition devices, which we can use in milliseconds when a flash begins and how far it travels,” said Cerveny.
The satellite satellite of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, which is parked in the geostation basket, recognize around one million lightning a day. It is the first of four NOAA satellites that are equipped with geostationary Lightning maps and are connected by similar satellites launched by Europe and China.
Goes-16 satellite image that records a record 515 miles of Lightning Mega-Flash during a storm in October 2017. Red circles mark positively charged branches of the flash, and blue circles mark negatively charged branches. Credit: World meteorological organization, American Meteorological Society
“Adding continuous measurements from the geostationary orbit was great progress,” said Michael Peterson at Georgia Tech Research Institute. “We are now at a point where most global megaflash hotspots are covered by a geostationary satellite, and the data processing techniques have improved to correctly present the flash in the large amount of observation data on all standards.” Peterson is the first author of a report in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that documents the new flash data.
Most flashes are limited to less than 10 miles within reach. If a flash goes out over 60 miles (100 kilometers to be precise), it is considered a megaflash. According to satellite observations, which were analyzed by Peterson, less than 1 percent of thunderstorms produce megaflash flash. They arise from storms that are durable, usually brewed for 14 hours or more and a size is solid and cover an area that is comparable to the state of New Jersey on square miles. The average megaflash shoots five to seven ground branches from its horizontal path over the sky.
While Megaflashes, which extend hundreds of miles, are rare, it is not unusual at all that lightning is 10 or 15 miles from its origin of storm clouds, said Cerveny. And that contributes to the danger. Cerveny said people don't merging how far flashes ranged from his thunderstorm of parents.
Lightning kills 20 to 30 people every year in the United States and violates hundreds. Most lightning strikes occur before and after the thunderstorm, not at the level of the storm.
“Therefore, you should wait at least half an hour after a thunderstorm has expired before you go out and resume normal activities,” said Cerveny. “The storm that creates a lightning strike does not have to be through.”
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