Re: An electrics discussion of 90L
Posted by Mike_Doran on 8/14/2009, 2:40 am


Florida is the most struck state in the US.  Something like 1.4 million strikes a year.  There is a stalled front, and this time of year we are now in peak global lightning.  It again has to do with the fact that 90 percent of lightning occurs over land and there is more land in the northern hemisphere.  Florida is also surrounded by water and not just any water but water that is warm and therefore conductive.  It is especially interesting IMHO due to its proximate location next to the Gulf Stream and hence next to a live conductive wire connected to the tropical Atlantic.  In a way, then, lightning that occurs over South America and Africa, the most struck place on earth, is connected to Florida.  This time of year, again, lightning is over the thick part of Africa, and Africa is the most struck place on earth.  Consider that again that the ITCZ is active in the Atlantic and probably the first tropical storm is slowly forming there.  Clouds form and unform not just over Florida but over the ITCZ there, like TDII, and charges that were trapped in say TD II are free to move and discharge.  Meanwhile Florida itself is surrounded by a lot of water.  Consider, again, the essential difference between land and ocean in terms of coupling.  The ocean is about 1,000 times more conductive than land.  So once a cloud with charges organized inside it moves over land, for instance Florida, the coupling ends from the bottom up.  Capacitance then decreases to zero and hence voltages go to infinity.  The charges then are more likely to short to ground.  This, again, is why 90 percent of lightning occurs over land.

The SOI indez has been rising, too, but I suppose I would point in general to Florida being struck alot in general, next, the time of year, and finally that the Atlantic is probably the most active place electrically at the moment, even if conditions globally are not ideal due to relatively very quiet space weather.  Keep in mind that although conditions from space are not ideal, human activity has made for more conductive conditions particularly this time of year when the global electrical circuit is at its peak, and so I would expect this kind of thing.

Something really interesting to me, given that you like history, I have learned from reading about ice ages.  Of course I think the Arctic has to melt first and become a place where couplings occur.  But then the non linear convection has to occur there in the Arctic.  Presently the Arctic doesn't get a lot of lightning.  Florida, again as you may know, leads the nation in lightning related deaths, killing almost a full quarter of those who die from it.  But Alaska has had no lightning related deaths.  There is little lightning up in the Arctic--but with super storms there is evidence of such intense lightning that giant bolders are split in two.  So while many people think in terms of very cold conditions, and, say, sun spots, I am more interested in the features that bring about non linear charge in convection.  To me, a tropical storm itself is extremely non linear in terms of a perfectly calm beach, for instance, can be the site where sand will take the skin off your face they are so intense . . .
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An electrics discussion of 90L - Mike_Doran, 8/13/2009, 9:57 am
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