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NASA: Three of the most powerful hurricanes of 2005 were filled with mysterious lightning.
NASA Science News ^ | 01/09/2006 | science@nasa

Posted on 01/09/2006 3:44:05 PM PST by MarineBrat

Electric Hurricanes

Three of the most powerful hurricanes of 2005 were filled with mysterious lightning.

January 9, 2006: The boom of thunder and crackle of lightning generally mean one thing: a storm is coming. Curiously, though, the biggest storms of all, hurricanes, are notoriously lacking in lightning. Hurricanes blow, they rain, they flood, but seldom do they crackle.

Surprise: During the record-setting hurricane season of 2005 three of the most powerful storms--Rita, Katrina, and Emily--did have lightning, lots of it. And researchers would like to know why.

Right: The eye of hurricane Emily photographed from the International Space Station. [More]

Richard Blakeslee of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) in Huntsville, Alabama, was one of a team of scientists who explored Hurricane Emily using NASA's ER-2 aircraft, a research version of the famous U-2 spy plane. Flying high above the storm, they noted frequent lightning in the cylindrical wall of clouds surrounding the hurricane's eye. Both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning were present, "a few flashes per minute," says Blakeslee.

"Generally there's not a lot of lightning in the eye-wall region," he says. "So when people see lightning there, they perk up -- they say, okay, something's happening."

Indeed, the electric fields above Emily were among the strongest ever measured by the aircraft’s sensors over any storm. "We observed steady fields in excess of 8 kilovolts per meter," says Blakeslee. "That is huge--comparable to the strongest fields we would expect to find over a large land-based 'mesoscale' thunderstorm."

The flight over Emily was part of a 30-day science data-gathering campaign in July 2005 organized and sponsored by NASA headquarters to improve scientists' understanding of hurricanes. Blakeslee and others from NASA, NOAA and 10 U.S. universities traveled to Costa Rica for the campaign, which is called "Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes." From the international airport near San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, they could fly the ER-2 to storms in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. They combined ER-2 data with data from satellites and ground-based sensors to get a comprehensive view of each storm.

Rita and Katrina were not part of the campaign. Lightning in those storms was detected by means of long-distance sensors on the ground, not the ER-2, so less is known about their electric fields.

see caption

Above: The ER-2 en route to a hurricane. [More]

Nevertheless, it is possible to note some similarities: (1) all three storms were powerful: Emily was a Category 4 storm, Rita and Katrina were Category 5; (2) all three were over water when their lightning was detected; and (3) in each case, the lightning was located around the eye-wall.

What does it all mean? The answer could teach scientists something new about the inner workings of hurricanes.

Actually, says Blakeslee, the reason most hurricanes don't have lightning is understood. "They're missing a key ingredient: vertical winds."

Within thunderclouds, vertical winds cause ice crystals and water droplets (called "hydrometeors") to bump together. This "rubbing" causes the hydrometeors to become charged. Think of rubbing your socked feet across wool carpet--zap! It's the same principle. For reasons not fully understood, positive electric charge accumulates on smaller particles while negative charge clings to the larger ones. Winds and gravity separate the charged hydrometeors, producing an enormous electric field within the storm. This is the source of lightning.

A hurricane's winds are mostly horizontal, not vertical. So the vertical churning that leads to lightning doesn't normally happen.

see caption

Above: An infrared GOES 11 satellite image of Hurricane Emily. Yellow + and - symbols mark lightning bolts detected by the North American Lightning Detection Network. The green line traces the path of the ER-2. Click to view electric fields measured by the aircraft during the flight.

Lightning has been seen in hurricanes before. During a field campaign in 1998 called CAMEX-3, scientists detected lightning in the eye of hurricane Georges as it plowed over the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The lightning probably was due to air forced upward -- called "orographic forcing" -- when the hurricane hit the mountains.

"Hurricanes are most likely to produce lightning when they're making landfall," says Blakeslee. But there were no mountains beneath the "electric hurricanes" of 2005—only flat water.

It's tempting to think that, because Emily, Rita and Katrina were all exceptionally powerful, their sheer violence somehow explains their lightning. But Blakeslee says that this explanation is too simple. "Other storms have been equally intense and did not produce much lightning," he says. "There must be something else at work."

It's too soon to say for certain what that missing factor is. Scientists will need months to pour over the reams of data gathered in this year's campaign before they can hope to have an answer.

Says Blakeslee, "We still have a lot to learn about hurricanes."

Authors: Patrick L. Barry and Dr. Tony Phillips | Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

More Information
Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes -- campaign home page

Hurricane Emily -- an amazing photo from the International Space Station

Storm Planes -- technological marvels that fly through hurricanes

More lightning news from inside hurricanes (Science@NASA) A hurricane research campaign in 1998 showed that hurricanes typically don't produce much lightning.

How strong is that hurricane? -- a web site for elementary-age students

The Vision for Space Exploration



TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Technical
KEYWORDS: 2005review; hurricanes; nasa; u2; weather
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Rovian Lightning? Have at it!
1 posted on 01/09/2006 3:44:08 PM PST by MarineBrat
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To: MarineBrat

bflr


2 posted on 01/09/2006 3:45:33 PM PST by cgk (I don't see myself as a conservative. I see myself as a religious, right-wing, wacko extremist.)
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To: Lil'freeper

Invasion.


3 posted on 01/09/2006 3:46:16 PM PST by big'ol_freeper ("Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." Pope JPII)
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To: MarineBrat

Maybe when storms get that large, they attract so much lightening and get such great static charges that there is additional light not seen in lesser storms.

We can only guess, but a big storm could be more complex I would think.


4 posted on 01/09/2006 3:48:04 PM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: MarineBrat

How many posts until we get the reason why?


5 posted on 01/09/2006 3:48:22 PM PST by conservative barking moonbat
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To: MarineBrat

Come on everybody knows these weren't ordinary hurricanes. These hurricanes were generated by the Weather-Matic 3000 built by Halliburton and currently housed in the basement of the white house.

Geez - this is old news


6 posted on 01/09/2006 3:49:59 PM PST by The Lumster
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To: MarineBrat

Either Rovian, or it's BUSH'S FAULT!!!


7 posted on 01/09/2006 3:50:13 PM PST by fishtank
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To: MarineBrat

because these three storms were created by George Bush and Carl Roves weather machine


8 posted on 01/09/2006 3:50:43 PM PST by vigilante2 (proud parent of a soldier)
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To: conservative barking moonbat

War of the worlds man, the aliens are riding the bolts down to there tripods and are just waiting to strike.


9 posted on 01/09/2006 3:53:18 PM PST by aft_lizard (What does G-d look like then if we evolved from nothing?See Genesis Ch 1:26-27)
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To: MarineBrat
Everyone knows that mysterious lighting is the mark of the Rovian weather control machine. This is old news.
10 posted on 01/09/2006 3:54:07 PM PST by Mad_as_heck (The MSM - America's (domestic) public enemy #1.)
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To: aft_lizard

"War of the worlds man, the aliens are riding the bolts down to there tripods and are just waiting to strike."


Sadly, that's just as plausible as saying it's Bush's fault.


11 posted on 01/09/2006 3:59:26 PM PST by sms
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To: MarineBrat
...hurricane season of 2005 three of the most powerful storms--Rita, Katrina, and Emily--did have lightning, lots of it. And researchers would like to know why....

One word --- GLOBAL WARMING

Save the Taxpayer money; don't bother with the study. All this business with storms and lightning could have been avoided if only the US Senate would have ratified Kyoto. Its an awful shame that Al Gore is All Gone.

12 posted on 01/09/2006 4:00:29 PM PST by ricks_place
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To: MarineBrat

Cheney accidentally hit the lightning button on the Haliburton Hurricane Generator..


13 posted on 01/09/2006 4:01:52 PM PST by RTINSC (Being Offended is the Natural Consequence of Leaving Your Home...)
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To: MarineBrat
"For reasons not fully understood, positive electric charge accumulates on smaller particles while negative charge clings to the larger ones."

The charge generally resides on the surface. Larger surfaces can accomodate more charge and attain a lower energy. The positive charge is not that mobile, it's bound in the lattice. Electrons are mobile, so they distribute themselves during the process to arrive at the lowest energy configuration. That occurs when the surface charge density is minimized. That's accomplished by the mile electrons arranging themselves. Large particles have the capacity to hold more charge at the same charge density as the small ones, so the electrons will accumulate there.

14 posted on 01/09/2006 4:03:58 PM PST by spunkets
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To: MarineBrat
Not to worry folks... just need to calibrate targeting before we hit IRAN.

HAARP

15 posted on 01/09/2006 4:04:55 PM PST by FreedomNeocon (I'm in no Al-Samood for this Shi'ite.)
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To: spunkets
"the mile electrons"

mile = mobile.

16 posted on 01/09/2006 4:06:59 PM PST by spunkets
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To: MarineBrat

They're HERE!!!


17 posted on 01/09/2006 4:11:03 PM PST by BreitbartSentMe (Ex-Democrat since 2001)
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To: aft_lizard
Freakin' Martians...


18 posted on 01/09/2006 4:11:28 PM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: MarineBrat

ELECTRIFYING NEWS!

Like a bolt out of the blue!


19 posted on 01/09/2006 5:01:08 PM PST by LRS
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To: ricks_place

Isn't that two words?


20 posted on 01/09/2006 5:04:05 PM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Never corner anything meaner than you. NSDQ)
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