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Nature 423, 927-929 (26 June 2003) | doi:10.1038/423927a
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Chemical Technician
- KSR
- Phoenix, AZ, USA
Assistant Professor of Medicine
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Boston, MA
Atmospheric physics: Electric jets
Victor P. Pasko
Abstract
Powerful electric currents have been detected in discharges between thunderclouds and the upper atmosphere. Carried by gigantic jets, they are a new factor in the model of the Earth's electrical and chemical environment.
Although cloud-to-ground lightning is a familiar disruption in the modern electronic world, lightning formed above the clouds is also an important factor in what is known as the global circuit of atmospheric electricity. Radio atmospherics are natural electromagnetic emissions from lightning discharges and can propagate thousands of kilometres through the 'waveguide' formed by the Earth's surface and the ionized region of the upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere.
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