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March 23, 2025 at 10:04AM
Via SpaceWeather.com Every second, almost 50 bolts of lightning zig-zag across the skies of Earth. Despite centuries of study, however, researchers still aren’t sure how the bolts get started. Electric fields in thunderclouds are often too weak to ignite a powerful discharge.
A new study just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research titled 3D Radio Frequency Mapping and Polarization Observations Show Lightning Flashes Were Ignited by Cosmic-Ray Showers, may have solved the mystery.
“We believe that most lightning flashes in thunderstorms are ignited by cosmic ray showers,” says the study’s lead author Xuan-Min Shao, a senior scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
To investigate the earliest moments of lightning formation, Shao and colleagues built a radio interferometer named “BIMAP-3D.” Consisting of an array of 8 antennas in Los Alamos, BIMAP-3D can make three dimensional images of lightning and pinpoint the bolts inside thunderclouds. Here’s an example:
This is a lightning bolt from a massive thunderstorm that passed by Los Alamos on July 30, 2022. BIMAP-3D imaged more than 300 bolts during the 90-minute storm. It was a treasure trove of data.
The experimenters realized that some of the bolts they observed happened in parts of the storm where electric fields were too weak to cause the “Initial Breakdown Event” (IBE)–the initial spark that sets the lightning in motion. Modern theories of relativistic electron avalanche couldn’t explain what they saw. Their suspicions soon focused on cosmic rays.
Cosmic rays are high energy particles that come from distant supernova explosions and other violent events across the cosmos. They strike Earth’s atmosphere all the time, creating a secondary spray of particles called “cosmic ray showers.” Regular readers are familiar with these showers because we routinely monitor them using Earth to Sky cosmic ray balloons over California.
One of the important things about cosmic ray showers is that they contain antimatter–positrons as well as ordinary electrons. The Los Alamos 3D lightning maps contained strong evidence for positrons. Electrons and positrons are bent in opposite directions by Earth’s magnetic field, so they leave opposite imprints on the lightning’s polarization, which BIMAP-3D also measured.
“It took me a while to figure this out,” admits Shao. “I started with electrons only at the beginning, but could not explain the observations. With both electrons and positrons involved, all the observations can be consistently explained.”
Positrons clinched the case for cosmic rays. “The fact that a cosmic ray shower provides an ionized path in the cloud that otherwise lacks free electrons strongly favor the inference that most lightning flashes are ignited by cosmic rays,” the authors wrote.
In fact, it’s still unclear how much of Earth’s lightning is sparked by cosmic rays. Many more storms need to be studied with this method to improve the statistics. “This will require a lot of long-term and good quality lightning data,” Shao says.
Feature photo: A lightning bolt over Brazil. Photo credit: Sergio Mazzi
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March 23, 2025 at 08:06AM
Soaring energy prices… regulations…35% of German companies say country is too hostile to business.
Blackout News here reports on how a growing number of German industrial companies are relocating their production abroad, driven by soaring energy costs, stifling bureaucracy, and an increasing tax burden.
As Germany gets greener, more companies are shuttering, moving out. Grok AI image.
A recent survey by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) reveals that a staggering 35 percent of companies now cite cost reduction as the primary motivation for their foreign investments – the highest such figure since the 2008 financial crisis.
That’s worrisome news for the country, which recently voted for a change in recent national elections. However, chancellor candidate and election winner Friedrich Merz has since broken his major campaign promises and instead will pledged to further accelerate the destructive green policies and to pile on debt like never before.
German companies looking for business-friendlier environments
The DIHK reports that the traditional driver of tapping into new markets abroad now accounts for just 30 percent, and that instead the focus has sharply shifted towards securing economic advantages in locations with more favorable cost structures.
Little hope of reform
Energy-intensive industries are particularly feeling the pinch, facing intensified international competition that is accelerating the trend of relocation. Although ongoing coalition negotiations between the CDU, CSU, and SPD are grappling with ways to reduce electricity taxes and halving grid fees, companies are skeptical these steps will stem the hemorrhaging.
DIHK President Peter Adrian has called for “more freedom, lower costs and faster administrative action” to restore Germany’s competitiveness.
Germany’s business attractiveness as an investment destination is demonstrably declining and has reached a critical juncture. Domestic investment is weak with two out of five industrial companies planning to scale back their investments within Germany.
Merz breaks all his major campaign promises
Without swift and comprehensive reforms, the long-term competitiveness of Germany as a business location faces a significant threat, potentially leading to a further exodus of its vital industrial base, warns Blackout News.
As Germany’s CDU party led by Friedrich Merz negotiates with the SPD socialists on forming a new government, early signals are showing that things are going to get a lot worse instead of better as Merz breaks his campaign promises. In a recent survey, almost 75% of respondents feel they got duped by Merz.
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March 23, 2025 at 06:18AM
What follows is an X conversation I had this morning with Chef Andrew Gruel. I don’t have all his replies because, well, you have to get to the end of the story. I was watching Fox & Friends this morning (segment below) when ChefGruel came on to talk about Robert Kennedy Jr. ordering the FDA … Continue reading Chef Gruel: A Junk Science Fool
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March 23, 2025 at 04:36AM
