‘Upside-down’ lightning caught on video
| August 24, 2009 | 10:44 AM
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Researchers at Duke University have captured a rare “upside-down” lightning bolt on video. Known as gigantic jets, these bolts travel upward from storm clouds into the top layers of the atmosphere.
In the video — captured last year during Tropical Storm Cristobal — the gigantic jet resembles a geyser of electricity. The researchers said it was “about a hundred to a thousand times bigger than a typical lightning stroke,” in terms of the electrical charge it carried.
Capturing a gigantic jet on film wasn’t the researchers’ original intention. They were actually studying sprites, a different type of lightning phenomenon.
gigantic jets, lightning, storm, weather
