The findings were described in a pair of papers in Nature, published October 2. The post Scientists discover intense bursts of gamma rays from thunderclouds appeared first on Talker.

A full understanding of how lightning forms in the clouds has eluded scientists, but new research promises to solve this enduring mystery.

Zaid Pervez, one of the team’s doctoral students, said, “We explained how photoelectric events occur, what conditions need to be in thunderclouds to initiate the cascade of electrons, and what ...

A NASA ER-2 aircraft flies a mission for ALOFT mission to study gamma-rays in thunderclouds. (Image credit: NASA/Carla Thomas) Researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway, the U.S. Naval ...

The airplane is capable of flying at about 60,000 feet, an ideal altitude for flying in the proximity of thunderclouds. While airborne, the plane was fitted with instruments mounted on the ...

Though scientists have long understood how lightning strikes, the precise atmospheric events that trigger it within thunderclouds have remained a perplexing mystery. The mystery may now be solved ...

Researchers could soon have a better understanding of lightning strikes thanks to a mobile terawatt laser that probes thunderclouds with femtosecond pulses. The team has developed a mobile terawatt ...

It was discovered, more or less by coincidence, that cosmic rays provide suitable probes to measure electric fields within thunderclouds. This surprising finding is published in Physical Review ...

Scientists on the International Space Station spotted a bright-blue lightning bolt shooting upward from thunderclouds. Blue jets can be difficult to spot from the ground, since the electrical ...