A thunderous phenomenon
The sound of thunder at midnight is enough to tickle a sensation of horror in any human being. And that pole of bright light in between the dark clouds! Even when we see the lightning in daylight it envisages a feeling of excitement in us. It is a wonderful view -no doubt, the bright light descending from the heavens down to earth in the form the zigzag lines and faint branches visible along its sides But are you aware about the power of lightning? It contains a power up to 1000kw, enough to burn anything; I repeat anything into ashes that comes in its way. We have often heard regarding lightning falling on trees or houses and blistered them into ashes. It indeed is a nightmare if lightning falls on your house or directly to you! No doubt, the Greek god, ZEUS chose his weapon very carefully and decisively.
Story behind the light
It is true that lightning forms in the clouds and come down to earth. But what about the other side of the clouds? Sounds a bit of out of the way question and complex? Consider cloud as a layer in the atmosphere. It has 2 faces- one facing the earth and the other facing the outer space. Now get ready for a shocking fact- specially physics nerds out there, who have always known that x-rays are created only in labs in specific conditions and vacuum tubes. Let me tell you- it is also occuring naturally. When the lightning occurs straight from the cloud down to earth, at the same instance x-ray bursts takes place at the other side facing the outer space for the split of a second and then it dissolves again into the vast emptiness. Along with it a gamma rays burst also occurs- which is a distinctive phenomenon as gamma rays are known to appear during nuclear reactions or collapsing stars. But this energy dissipates very quickly in all directions instead of being accumulated in a pole like the visible lightning.
The dark side
Darkness exists for the sole purpose that you can realize the importance of light. If there is light, there will be darkness. Ying and yang according to Chinese philosophy will always exist together. So, when we have this lightning of 1000kw power, we ought to have a dark lightning. Even if it sounds a bit philosophical, but yes dark lightning truly exists.
• Characteristics
Dark lightning does not occur too often, perhaps 1 in 1000 lightings. These flashes are invisible to human eyes and they are just impulsive bursts of powerful radiations. These mainly effects flying airplane in that region at that particular time. Although the passengers will not get the slightest hint but according to scientific calculations they may get the maximum safe lifetime dose of ionizing radiation instantaneously. Radiations are very harmful for human beings as they effect at the genetic level and can alter your genes which may lead to certain deficiency not only in you but in the following generations as well. But since flights are avoided during thunderstorms , hence the chances of such blemishes are rare.
These appear majorly in order to compete with the visible lightning. You can call it nature’s way of managing the thunderstorms to facilitate elimination of electric energy that is brawling inside the layers of cloud.
The story and research regarding thunderstorms are not yet over. Experiment and investigations are still on so that we can understand the truth behind this electrifying event.
