Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 31 January 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5607, pp. 694 - 697
DOI: 10.1126/science.1078940
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Energetic Radiation Produced During Rocket-Triggered Lightning

Joseph R. Dwyer,1* Martin A. Uman,2 Hamid K. Rassoul,1 Maher Al-Dayeh,1 Lee Caraway,1 Jason Jerauld,2 Vladimir A. Rakov,2 Douglas M. Jordan,2 Keith J. Rambo,2 Vincent Corbin,1 Brian Wright1

Using a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector designed to operate in electrically noisy environments, we observed intense bursts of energetic radiation (ggreater 10 kiloelectron volts) during the dart leader phase of rocket-triggered lightning, just before and possibly at the very start of 31 out of the 37 return strokes measured. The bursts had typical durations of less than 100 microseconds and deposited many tens of megaelectron volts into the detector. These results provide strong evidence that the production of runaway electrons is an important process during lightning.

1 Department of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA.
2 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)