The Fascinating World of Lightning Research

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• Dr Daniel Mitchard, Senior Lecturer Lightning Laboratory, Cardiff University
• Tuesday 22 October 2024, 11:00-12:00
• Chemistry Dept, Unilever Lecture Theatre and Zoom.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Vichawan (Print) Sakulsupich.

Lightning is one of the most powerful and unpredictable forces in nature with over 3 million strikes a day – around 34 per second. It is something which many have experienced but few understand, and is a fascinating topic which reaches across traditional disciplines into sometimes unexpected and surprising research areas.

In this seminar, Dr Mitchard will outline how lightning works, including types, polarity, distribution, and real-time location, as well as how it is impacted by and affects the climate: it is responsible for around 15% of worldwide greenhouse gas NOx emissions; starts more than half of all uncontrolled wildfires in many parts of the world, and kills around 25,000 people each year. There are rare and recently discovered upper-atmosphere lightning phenomena including pixies, jets, sprites, ghosts, and elves; lightning has been observed on Saturn and Jupiter but it is still a mystery for Venus and Mars; and it could be an important mechanism for initiating alien life.

He will explain how lightning is made at Cardiff University’s lightning laboratory, the only such facility in Europe, which can generate arcs eight times more powerful than the average natural lightning strike every three minutes, as well as the various high-speed cameras, schlieren imaging, and optical emission spectroscopy techniques used to characterise them. Research projects include ensuring that commercial airliners in-flight struck by lightning remain safe, understanding tree mortality from lightning in African rainforests, replication of above-cloud lightning using inhouse designed and built environment chambers, and using the topic of lightning as inspiration for artworks to better integrate the local community. See rare footage of upper-atmosphere lightning, how lightning initiated a wildfire in the laboratory, and what happened when a piggy bank was struck.

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CAS UnionRoad is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: CAS seminar: Dr Daniel Mitchard Time: Oct 22, 2024 11:00 AM London

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85126438539?pwd=SEZc8esBAaN98xU5Jf44DQ17Nbl17i.1

Meeting ID: 851 2643 8539 Passcode: 461728

This talk is part of the Centre for Atmospheric Science seminars, Chemistry Dept. series.

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