Rays: terrible and precious at the same time

2001/01/04 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Klima

The rays are the electric shocks that remain between rain clouds or between the cloud and the earth. It is not clear how clouds capture electricity and how they polarize, but have a negative charge at the base and positive at the top.

By means of high-speed cameras it has been verified that most of the "glows" are groups of rays and that each one has a guide ray. All have the same direction at the beginning and then they can branch out. The beam occurs every 0.02 and 0.25 seconds and each lasts only 0.0002 seconds. Therefore, although it is not perceived at first sight, darkness is the most remarkable feature of each "brightness".

The rays cause 40% of the fires of the hamlets and burn many forests, but they also have positive consequences. The soil is enriched, for example, because thanks to the rays the water drops transport atmospheric nitrogen.