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Lightning chases ships

26.09.2017

The World Lightning Detection Network operates in Seattle, Washington. It collects data from dozens of sensors around the world that pick up electromagnetic disturbances generated by lightning - the so-called atmospherics.

All sensors are on land, but atmospherics travel thousands of miles from the point of discharge, because they are radio waves even longer than those on which radio broadcasts are carried out. So an atmospheric that has arisen over the ocean will easily reach the sensor on land, and if it is registered by several sensors at once, then it is possible to determine exactly where the lightning occurred.

Scientists have noticed an almost straight line of flashes across the Indian Ocean. It turned out that lightning was concentrated along the busiest shipping lanes that stretch from the northern Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca to the South China Sea.

The researchers collected data on all 2005 billion outbreaks reported from 2016 to XNUMX. It turned out that outbreaks occurred along these shipping lanes on average twice as often as in neighboring areas of the ocean with the same climate. Natural weather conditions did not explain the phenomenon of increased concentration of lightning - that is, obviously, the lightning somehow pumped the ships themselves.

It is known that lightning can jump both between neighboring thunderclouds and between a cloud and the ground. In the second case, she hits the highest object. This happens because the sky is closer to high objects, and the electrical voltage always tends to discharge along the shortest path possible.

Since the decks of ships are the tallest objects in the open ocean, lightning often strikes there. (Of course, this was a real disaster only for medieval ships, while modern ones are reliably protected from damage by lightning rods.) If so, it can be assumed that the "concentration" of lightning along sea routes is explained by the fact that they are attracted by ships. However, the area with "increased content" of lightning is actually much wider than the ship fairways.

Specialistsresearchers explained the phenomenon quite simply. Apparently, the exhaust gases emitted by any internal combustion engines, including those of marine vessels, are to blame. Exhaust contains soot particles, nitrogen and sulfur compounds and other microscopic components. They help to condense water molecules, which prefer to stick just to some ready-made drops or particles present in the atmosphere.

If there are few such particles - condensation nuclei (for example, over an open ocean where there is clean air), water molecules have little choice, and they form large drops. But due to the exhaust gases, the particles become much larger, and many small droplets are obtained. Because they are lighter, they rise to greater heights, so that many of them freeze, reaching sub-zero layers.

Meanwhile, ice crystals are needed to electrify the cloud. More precisely, for electrification, it is necessary that both drops and ice crystals be present in it at the same time (which is why lightning usually does not happen in winter: in winter there are only crystals in the clouds).

Electrification occurs when crystals and drops collide with each other; It is believed that lighter and smaller particles are predominantly positively charged, while heavier and larger particles are negatively charged. Filled with electricity, the cloud is discharged by lightning. Since thunderclouds arise due to ship exhausts, the lightning zone turns out to be wider than the fairway.

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