Lightning

Lightning is a sudden electrical discharge in the atmosphere, occurring within or between clouds or between a cloud and the ground. Its intense current rapidly heats air and produces a flash and often thunder.

Thunderstorm electrification: The separation of electric charge within a thunderstorm, producing regions of opposite electrical polarity. Collisions among ice particles and storm updrafts help build the charge differences that precede lightning.
Intracloud lightning: A lightning discharge between regions of opposite charge within a single cloud. It is the most common form of lightning and remains inside a storm cloud.
Lightning detection: The observation and location of lightning using optical, radio-frequency, or other sensors. Detection networks track storm activity and help estimate where flashes are occurring.
Wildfire: An uncontrolled fire that burns vegetation and other fuels in natural landscapes. Lightning can ignite vegetation, especially where storms bring little rain.
Stepped leader: A branching channel of ionized air that advances in separate steps from a thundercloud toward the ground. It creates the descending path that a cloud-to-ground flash can follow.
Cloud-to-ground lightning: A lightning discharge that connects a cloud with the ground. This familiar type links storm charge to the surface and poses direct impact risks.
Lightning rod: A conductive rod connected to ground that provides a preferred path for lightning current. It helps protect structures by directing a strike current safely into the earth.
Nitrogen fixation: The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into chemically usable nitrogen compounds. Lightning's heat enables some atmospheric nitrogen to form compounds that reach soil in rain.
Return stroke: A bright, rapidly propagating current pulse that travels along an established lightning channel. It produces much of the visible brightness of a cloud-to-ground flash.
Cloud-to-cloud lightning: A lightning discharge that travels between separate clouds. It shows that a flash can bridge clouds without reaching the ground.

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