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Better Protection Begins with Better Knowledge of Lightning |
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Although lightning has been known to be a
discharge of electrical energy since Ben Franklin’s kite-flying days, the way
electrical charges build up and discharge in clouds is still not fully understood.
Researchers at Kennedy Space Center and other facilities throughout the world have
attempted to answer these questions so that improved means to detect and measure the
charges can be developed. What is known is that a lightning bolt is the transfer of a positive or a negative electrical charge from one region of a cloud to another, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. For such a transfer to take place, the two types of charges must be separated so that the cloud is electrified. Exactly how the charges become separated and where in the cloud they are located are still not completely clear. |
Page Last Revised |
Page & Curator Information |
08/21/2001 |
Curator: Kay Grinter (kay.grinter-1@ksc.nasa.gov)
/ InDyne, Inc. |
