Talk:Lightning

Upward streamer photography

I have removed a photograph described as showing an upwards streamer during a lightning strike. I would recommend if future edits are made to introduce illustrations of upwards streamers that editors remain vigilant of a common misinterpretation.

Lightning flashes are obviously very bright, usually overexposing sensors in cameras unless an experienced lightning photographer is deliberately accounting for it. These flashes that are sometimes orders of magnitude brighter than the surroundings can create a rare ghost image on a photograph as the flash is able to reflect within in the lens assembly of some photography equipment. The 'ghost' effect can look a lot like an upwards streamer.

These 'ghost streamers' will always look identical to the main lightning strike when rotated through 180 degrees, and will normally occupy the opposite portion of the picture (bottom left if main strike is top right, bottom center if top center, etc.). Depending on the setup of the lenses/optics in the camera, a full 180 degree rotation of the image may perfectly match the 'streamer', but some setups may cause the streamer to appear slightly smaller or larger, and imperfect alignment of the lens and sensor may mean that the ghost is only roughly rather than exactly opposite the brightest portion of the image. However, a 180 degree rotated ghost reflection 'streamer' will always have the exact same shape and pattern of the true strike.

True upwards streamers generally occur very close to where a cloud-to-ground strike actually contacts the ground (one of several streamers will be incorporated into the strike itself), to the point where the photographer can usually capture the point of the contact. There are often several streamers, they are nearly always projecting from the highest points on the ground in the area of the strike in the image and are angled towards the main strike as they are themselves induced by the streamer of the main strike. Crucially, they will always have a different shape to the main strike, even when rotated through 180 degrees, and this is the only factor than can confirm a true streamer has been photographed. Tobin Dax (talk) 16:31, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

@Tobin Dax thank you for the explanation and edit.

Im also noting here an online source which discusses the issue.

https://stormhighway.com/videoghost.php#:~:text=Videotaped%20lightning%20strikes%20(particularly%20cloud,as%20the%20main%20lightning%20channel. DecFinney (talk) 20:38, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

Voltage Potentials

The article is heavily 'current' but minimal on voltage. Voltage is the cause of the why a leader forms towards another region which has a different voltage potential. Once the circuit 'connects' thats when current will flow. Lightning is not just large current but voltages. Example: an aluminium smelter has exposed (to human touch) wire which feeds the arc electrodes. The amps involved are measured in high kilo-amp levels but the voltage of the smelting is about 2volts. A human can easily touch the exposed bus bars (2volts) but current will flow only if there is a low resistance zone. Skin and moist air cannot conduct lower voltages well but need very high potentials to initial a 'spark' and thus plasma formation (a leader). I don't know the numbers involved but working on an aluminium smelter years ago taught me a few things. High current is nothing special until you have an opportunity to either lower the resistance to voltage across a distance or have mega and kilo voltage different between two areas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-13436-25 (talk) 04:15, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

@~2026-13436-25 what specific edit to propose? can you provide a source? DecFinney (talk) 15:04, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

Suggested Edit Re: Detection and Monitoring

In the Detection and Monitoring section of the article, the following sentence is incomplete: "The Vaisala GLD360 network is a private enterprise." A fairer and more accurate representation would read as follows: "The Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) and the Vaisala GLD360 network are private enterprises." As a supporting citation, here is one scientific article leveraging the ENTLN to study global lightning: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-29669-w. Thank you for your consideration. Mike Nichols (AEM) (talk) 13:58, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

Suggested Edit Re: Megaflashes

The following sentence is incomplete and slightly misleading: "The flash, which was detected by NOAA's Geostationary Lightning Mapper, touched ground in five states." The megaflash spanned five states and touched ground 116 times (i.e., had 116 cloud-to-ground strikes). In addition, while the Geostationary Lightning Mapper was used to identify the megaflash, the researchers utilized the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) to identify the cloud-to-ground strikes within in. This source substantiates both claims: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/106/9/BAMS-D-25-0037.1.xml So, a more complete representation might be something like the following: "The flash, which was detected by NOAA's Geostationary Lightning Mapper with supplemental analysis of data from the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN), spanned five states and struck the ground 116 times." Mike Nichols (AEM) (talk) 14:13, 17 June 2026 (UTC)