Super-interesting: ionospheric lightning has very different causes from our usual stratospheric/tropospheric…

Super-interesting: ionospheric lightning has very different causes from our usual stratospheric/tropospheric lightning. The ionosphere lightning can make it hard for low-orbit satellites to detect signal from the GPS satellites, which are also low orbit, because the line-of-sight may pass through the lightning region

Originally shared by Peter Vogel

Little-understood “upward” lightning creates havoc for some satellites.

ESA Swarm satellites lose contact with earth as they cross equatorial plane. Lightning may be to blame.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3821223/Satellites-suffer-mystery-blackouts-Thunderstorms-edge-space-causing-loss-GPS-signals.html

Scientific paper (abstract): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016SW001439/abstract

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3821223/Satellites-suffer-mystery-blackouts-Thunderstorms-edge-space-causing-loss-GPS-signals.html

8 replies on “Super-interesting: ionospheric lightning has very different causes from our usual stratospheric/tropospheric…”

  1. Valeria Custis I believe not. This ionospheric lightning is nothing new, and the conditions needed for it are simply caused by normal sunlight hitting the high atmosphere and creating ions. It probably happens on many planets, not just Earth. We don’t get that kind of lightning down in the stratosphere or troposphere because the upper atmosphere (including ozone layer) protect us form much of that ionizing sunlight.

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