Project description
The hidden spark that triggers lightning
Lightning strikes Earth about 45 times every second. It all starts with powerful electric fields inside thunderclouds. They spark lightning and accelerate charged particles that emit bursts of gamma rays. Scientists want to know what actually triggers lightning. These flashes of high-energy radiation could hold the key. With this in mind, the ERC-funded ENLIGHTEN project aims to find out. Specifically, it will use advanced gamma-ray and radio imaging from high-altitude aircraft to track how electron avalanches and lightning discharges unfold inside storm clouds. Overall, ENLIGHTEN aims to illuminate one of nature’s most dramatic and least understood forces.
Objective
Lightning strikes earth 45 times each second, but we still don’t understand exactly what initiates it. The large electric fields in thunderclouds are also responsible for charged particle acceleration, ultimately leading to gamma-ray production. Energetic radiation is an essential component of thundercloud dynamics. Energetic radiation and lightning discharge appear tightly linked, but the nature of this link is yet to be understood.
ENLIGHTEN posits a causal relationship between energetic radiation and lightning initiation. Combining novel time-resolved gamma-ray imaging of thunderclouds with simultaneous lightning discharge imaging in the radio band, we aim to establish the causal mechanisms which initiate lightning and, in doing so, address one of the longest standing unsolved questions in atmospheric electricity.
Overarching hypothesis: lightning initiation is triggered by electron avalanches conducive to gamma-ray production.
To test this hypothesis, we identify three research objectives:
1. Mapping the spatio-temporal evolution of intense large-scale electric fields in tropical thunderclouds.
2. Imaging in gamma-rays of the newly discovered sub-second gamma-ray transients - flickering gamma-flashes and glow bursts.
3. Quantify the runaway electron avalanche discharge co-located with lightning initiation.
ENLIGHTEN will achieve its objectives with a methodology which combines:
a) time-resolved gamma-ray imaging of thunderclouds,
b) time-resolved lightning imaging in the radio band,
c) use of a high-altitude research aircraft,
d) data analysis and modelling.
Thunderclouds are the birthplace of a large variety of particle and gamma-ray phenomena, not to be considered just exotic and rare, but intrinsic and fundamental for thunderclouds. With 3 million lightning per day affecting life on planet Earth, unravelling the secrets of how gamma-ray emissions is linked to this common phenomenon is of great importance for the mankind.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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5020 Bergen
Norway
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