Florida scientists capture X-rays from lightning

[December 15, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Researchers for the first time have captured X-ray images of lightning, a feat they hope will help them better predict how lightning behaves.

A team from the Florida Institute of Technology and University of Florida launched small rockets into thunderclouds during the summer to trigger lightning. Using a special camera the size of a refrigerator, they recorded X-rays coming from the resulting light flashes before they hit the ground.

Though the images are low-resolution, lead researcher Joseph Dwyer of Florida Tech said they give scientists a brand new way of looking at lightning -- sort of what Superman would see.

"Superman has X-ray vision," he said Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Scientists have known that lightning emits X-rays, but they don't fully understand it. Among the other unknowns are how lightning forms in the clouds, how it moves through the air and strikes objects on the ground, including people and buildings.

Dwyer and his team performed the experiments at Camp Blanding in north Florida. The airspace overhead was controlled so scientists could trigger the lightning. They observed four separate lightning strikes and measured the X-rays and gamma ray bursts.

Though the flash they studied was human-made, Dwyer said it's similar to the real type. The beauty of creating lightning is that scientists can repeat the experiment.

"By studying triggered lightning, we're learning something about natural lightning," he said.

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Online:

Lightning Research Laboratory: http://www.lightning.ece.ufl.edu/

[Associated Press]

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