Image of the Day: Lightning over

Saudi Arabia
Evan Ackerman
Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - 10:44am

Credit: NASA/MSFC

Every second, there are about 50 lightning strikes worldwide, adding up to 4.3 million strikes per
day. As often as lightning happens, we really don't know a lot about it. Up on the International Space
Station, an instrument suite called Firestation keeps itself busy collecting data on as many lightning
discharges as it possibly can. The picture above shows a lightning strike over Saudi Arabia: the big
glowy patch at the bottom right is Kuwait City.

"Installed on the ISS in August 2013, the Firestation instrument includes photometers to measure
lightning flashes, radio antennas to measure the static (a proxy for the strength of the electrical
discharge), and a gamma-ray electron detector. Firestation is observing about 50 lightning strokes
per day and looking for brief bursts of gamma rays that are emitted by some of them."

Gamma rays are stupidly powerful. We're used to detecting them when there's a nearby supernova
or something, so it's a little bit nuts that they're being produced in our atmosphere. Nobody is exactly
sure where they come from, but it's possible that they're generated by a certain type of lightning that
shoots upward from clouds into the atmosphere. These rare discharges, called red sprites, are part
of what Firestation is watching for.

Firestation doesn't include a camera, which is too bad, but every so often, an astronaut gets lucky
and captures lightning strikes from orbit.

Bigger version here.
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