Electrometeoros: What are, types and examples

Electrometeoros or electric meteors are Atmospheric phenomena that involve the interaction between Earth’s atmosphere and electricity. These events can manifest in various ways of Electric downloadsfrom lightning, including curious globular rays or spherical lightning, and thunder in the thunderstorms to northern lights and the fire of San Telmo. These phenomena influence the climate and the environment of the area, but can also alter the functioning of electrical appliances.

Among the different types of electrometeors that exist we have the following:

• Lightning: One of the most common and well -known electrometers are lightning, which occur when electric charges accumulate in the clouds and on the earth’s surface, generating an intense and visible electric shock in the form of light and sound. In addition, there are other less known but equally intriguing phenomena, such as globular rays or spherical lightning. These rare events involve a light sphere of several meters in diameter that moves through the air, accompanied by an electric buzz. Although its exact origin is still research, it is believed that globular rays are related to electrical processes in the atmosphere.
• Thunder: The thunderstorms are sets of rain, wind often hail, accompanied by electrometeoros such as lightning and thunder, which are very frequent in many parts of the world. Thunder are a sound electrometeoro, that is, an acoustic phenomenon that is the sound that accompanies lightning.
• Aurora borealis: Another electrometeorological phenomenon is the auroras, which are mainly observed in the polar regions. The auroras, such as the northern light in the northern hemisphere and the southern dawn in the southern hemisphere, are caused by charged particles that are accelerated towards the Earth’s atmosphere by the solar wind, interacting with atmospheric gases and producing impressive colored lights.
• San Telmo fire: Finally, another of the most curious electrometeors is the fire of San Telmo, which is an electric shock that appears on pointed objects, such as ship masts, airplanes or buildings.

Next, we detail more about the characteristics of the electrometeoros of each type.

Lightnings are an electrometeorological phenomenon that occurs when this process happens:

1. They accumulate Electric loads in the clouds and on the earth’s surface.
2. This accumulation of charges occurs due to convection and friction processes within the clouds during the development of a storm. Water drops and ice crystals move and collide with each other, resulting in the separation of electric loads: A positive charge zone at the top of the cloud and a negative load zone at the bottom.
3. When the difference in electrical potential between these areas reaches a critical pointthere is a Electric download in the form of lightning. This download can occur inside the cloud (intra-nube), between different clouds (inter-nube) or between the cloud and the earth’s surface (cloud-earth).

When a lightning is produced between the cloud and the earth, it generally follows a tortuous path through the air ionized by the passage of the electric current. This ionization path creates a Bright flash and characteristic that we see how lightning. As the current flows between the cloud and the Earth, heated the surrounding air to extremely high temperatures, which causes rapid expansion and the generation of a shock wave that we perceive like thunder.

Here you can read about the difference between lightning and lightning and thunderstorms: what are, how types and consequences are formed.

Thunder is the acoustic phenomenon that accompanies lightning during a storm. It occurs as a result of the rapid heating and expansion of the surrounding air due to the intense electric current that crosses the ionization channel created by lightning.

1. When a lightning generates an electric shock, Heat the air at extremely high temperatures, sometimes exceeding 30,000 degrees Celsius.
2. This causes not only heating, but also the air expansion.
3. This sudden air expansion creates a shock wave that propagates through the atmosphere in Sound formwhat we perceive as thunder.

The speed of sound in the air is approximately 343 meters per second, so the sound of thunder travels at that speed. This means that we can calculate the distance at which the lightning is counting the seconds that pass between the view of the lightning and the sound of the thunder, since Light travels much faster than sound. For every three seconds between the view of lightning and the sound of thunder, lightning is approximately a kilometer away.

In these other posts you can inform yourself more about what thunder are and how are rays and thunder?

Polar auroras, also known as southern auroras in the southern hemisphere and Northern Nuroras In the northern hemisphere, they are natural phenomena of a spectacular beauty that occur in the polar regions of the earth. These phenomena are caused by the interaction between charged particles from the solar wind and the earth’s magnetic field. Here you can learn about what the solar wind is and how it affects the earth and about the magnetic field of the earth or magnetosphere: what is, where it is and function.

The formation of polar auroras follows this process:

1. The solar wind, mainly composed of electrically loaded electrons and protonsconstantly flow from the sun to space.
2. When these particles reach the Magnetosphere of the Earth, some of them are channeled towards the poles along the lines of the Earth’s magnetic field.
3. As these charged particles mainly electrons, They collide with the atoms and molecules of the high earth’s atmospheresuch as oxygen and nitrogen, They transfer energy to those atoms and molecules.
4. These atoms and excited molecules emit photons of light when they return to their original energy state, thus creating the characteristics bright and colorful lights of the auroras. The colors of the auroras depend on the type of atmospheric gas that is being excited and the altitude to which the interaction occurs. For example, oxygen produces green and red tones, while nitrogen produces blue and violet tones.

You can expand this information about polar auroras: what they are and how they are formed here.

San Telmo’s fire is a meteorological phenomenon that manifests itself as a form of Electric download that appears in pointed objects Exposed during thunderstorms, particularly on the mast of the ships. This phenomenon occurs like this:

1. When an electric current is between an electrically loaded cloud and a pointed object, such as a mast of a ship or an antenna, due to the difference in electrical potential between them.
2. The electric field in the air reaches a certain point where it is ionized.
3. At this point, a visible electric current is created in the form of a flame or bluish light that seems to dance on the pointed object.

San Telmo’s fire is more common for severe electric storms on the high seaswhere ships are more likely to be reached by rays. However, it can also occur in other environments, such as on the mainland in high and pointed structures.

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