700-km Brazil ‘megaflash’ sets lightning record: UN

The UN’s weather agency announced Thursday the longest lightning bolt on record—a single flash in Brazil on October 31, 2018 that cut the sky across more than 700 kilometers.

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A new world record for the duration of a lightning flash, with a single flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019 lasting for a full 16.73 seconds.

The previous record for the longest detected distance for a single lightning flash was 321 kilometers (199 miles), measured on June 20, 2007 in the US state of Oklahoma.

The previous duration record was 7.74 seconds, measured on August 30, 2012 in southern France.

I’d like to know the record for most powerful lightning bolt in energy

I wonder if there is a way to scan satellite data for it?

Tau.Neutrino said:

I’d like to know the record for most powerful lightning bolt in energy

1.21 gigawatts!

Witty Rejoinder said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

I’d like to know the record for most powerful lightning bolt in energy

1.21 gigawatts!

Dear lord… accountants.

sibeen said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

I’d like to know the record for most powerful lightning bolt in energy

1.21 gigawatts!

Dear lord… accountants.

It’s from a movie I expect you haven’t seen…

Witty Rejoinder said:

sibeen said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

1.21 gigawatts!

Dear lord… accountants.

It’s from a movie I expect you haven’t seen…

More than likely :)

There are longer ones on other planets.

Do stars have lightning ?

Probably no way to see them unless with trickery.

> Do stars have lightning ?

Um, that’s an interesting question.

On planets, lightning is often created by triboelectricity, where friction causes charge separation.

Stars life our Sun are almost electrically neutral, like planets. Thermo-emission of electrons generates a slight positive charge but the electrons get attracted back downwards by coulomb attraction. So the solar wind and cosmic rays from stars are electrically neutral.

That’s a good sign.

But on the other hand, lightning on planets is formed from the ground state molecules having to jump the big quantum gap into the excited state. In stars, a lot of the atmosphere is in the excited state to begin with so the quantum gap to be jumped is much smaller. Which suggests that lightning on stars would be shorter and less powerful than on planets.

I’m waffling. In short, I don’t know. In particular I don’t know how strong local magnetic fields such as those on stars would affect lightning.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Do stars have lightning ?

Probably no way to see them unless with trickery.

The visible part of the sun is plasma, so there’s no way for a charge imbalance to accumulate.

But what about the sun’s atmosphere? Ionisation occurs but is it discontinuous enough to allow for a build up and discharge? The narrow spicules of plasma that rise through the chromosphere are kind of like lightning but the cause is quite different.

https://www.britannica.com/science/spicule-solar-feature

read that, cheers neutrino

mollwollfumble said:

> Do stars have lightning ?

Um, that’s an interesting question.

On planets, lightning is often created by triboelectricity, where friction causes charge separation.

Stars life our Sun are almost electrically neutral, like planets. Thermo-emission of electrons generates a slight positive charge but the electrons get attracted back downwards by coulomb attraction. So the solar wind and cosmic rays from stars are electrically neutral.

That’s a good sign.

But on the other hand, lightning on planets is formed from the ground state molecules having to jump the big quantum gap into the excited state. In stars, a lot of the atmosphere is in the excited state to begin with so the quantum gap to be jumped is much smaller. Which suggests that lightning on stars would be shorter and less powerful than on planets.

I’m waffling. In short, I don’t know. In particular I don’t know how strong local magnetic fields such as those on stars would affect lightning.

A spicule is somewhat different.

In my thoughts I’m coming up with two possible answers.

One is that lightning requires an unionised atmosphere. Hydrogen ionises at 10,000 K, helium at 12,000 K. The top of the Sun’s photosphere has a temperature of only 4,000 K. So that doesn’t rule out lightning.

The second answer is that, on solar system planets, lightning requires materials in the solid phase to generate electricity by friction. On Earth, it’s H2O. Unless we postulate rather exotic solids in the atmosphere (diamond, ruby, glass, iron droplets, magnesium silicate and potassium iodide have all been seriously proposed), we’re requiring that at least some part of the atmosphere is below 273 K at pressures above 1/165 bar (611 Pa). Potassium iodide can stay solid up to 954 K.

The following diagram mentions clouds of ruby (corundum), glass and magnesium silicate (silicates) and iron droplets in brown dwarf atmospheres.

The brown dwarf W0855−0714 is the fourth-closest system to our own Sun, after Alpha Centauri AB – Proxima Centauri, Barnard’s Star and WISE 1049-5319. It has an atmosphere cold enough for lightning generated by water hail. Spectral class Y2, ie. extremely cold for a brown dwarf.

Most brown dwarfs are too hot for water ice, but not too hot for clouds. Clouds have been observed on L dwarfs and T dwarfs.

Oh, here we go, this diagram is even better. Clouds of solids could mean lightning.