High on a Hill

Is lightning to blame for global warming?

Nov 4, 2009 12:39

Image: Lightning in KL by Monstermunch99@flickr

When I was in school, I learned that lightning was caused by friction between the positive and negative charges in the atmosphere as hot air rises and collides into cold air. I always believed this to be true, until last year when I watched a documentary on Discovery Channel which featured a man who had been studying lightning for the past decade.

According to this researcher (slaps forehead, I forget his name), in all calculations, the amount of positive and negative charges in the atmosphere could not possibly cause enough friction to produce electrical lightning bolts, as each lightning bolt is between 100 million and 100 billion volts. Therefore, the real cause of lightning is still a mystery that he and his team are still studying and trying to unravel today.

But, is lightning to blame for global warming? Apparently, that, too, is a mystery which is still being scrutinized today. According to America's space agency, NASA, the core of some lightning bolts reaches 29,727 degrees Celcius, which is hot enough to instantly melt sand. It is also hot enough to break down oxygen and nitrogen molecules into individual atoms and produce a puff of nitrogen oxide gas (NOx).

NOx reacts with sunlight and other gases in the atmosphere to produce ozone which can harm human and plant health, is a potent greenhouse gas and blocks cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation.

So take heart, global warming may be just partly and not completely our fault!

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