EOSC 114 Chapter Notes - Chapter 20: Electrostatic Discharge, Lightning, Air1

• School: UBC
• Department: Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Course: EOSC 114
• Professor: Lucy Porritt

Document Summary

During some strikes, multiple upward streamers spark up and only one makes a connection. Lightning in a thunderstorm occurs because positive and negative electrical charge, the basis for electrical energy, separates within the cloud. Negative charge builds up at a lower level in the cloud. The build-up of negative charge results in electrical force, also called voltage. The electrical force become so strong that an electrical breakdown occurs, resulting in lightning flashes. Lightning transfers the charge and returns the cloud to equilibrium. Return stroke a sudden super fast transfer of charge from the cloud to the ground: produces temperatures exceeding 50 thousand degrees fahrenheit in a fraction of a second (hotter than any other natural phenomenon on earth). The nearly instantaneous super heat causes the air near the lightning channel to expand incredibly fast and produces a shockwave in the air. We hear the shockwave as the crack and rumble of thunder.