Gamma rays are bursts of high-energy radiation normally associated with powerful astronomical events, but they have also been observed on Earth. Electrons accelerated in lightning bolts to nearly the speed of light are believed to be behind these 'terrestrial' gamma-ray flashes. But the location of the lightning bolts and their flashes — a key fact needed to figure out how the flashes come about — is not known.
Morris Cohen of Stanford University in California and his colleagues have now built a map showing where lightning bolts and their associated flashes occurred. The researchers used satellite data on gamma-ray flashes, and a global network of very-low-frequency antennas to detect radio waves from lightning. They pinpointed the location of 36 lightning bolts that were associated with flashes and determined which came first. The order of the two events was not always the same.
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Atmospheric physics: Bolt from the blue. Nature 463, 591 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463591a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/463591a
