Environment

Solar Activity Triggers Lightning on Earth

While recent findings point to the likelihood of more lightning around the world as the planet warms, other research suggests lightning strikes in some areas are already affected by solar activity.

In a report published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, scientists say the orientation of the sun’s magnetic field plays a significant role in the number of lightning strikes, at least in the United Kingdom.

“What we found was there is significantly more lightning in the U.K. when the field is pointing towards the sun than when it’s pointing away, which was surprising,” said lead author Matt Owens from the University of Reading.

He believes that the sun’s pushing or pulling on Earth’s magnetic field lets energetically charged particles filter down into the atmosphere, triggering the lightning.

Owens and colleagues found that between 2001 and 2006, there was a 50 percent increase in thunder and lightning in Britain when the solar magnetic field pointed away from Earth.

They conclude that while the configuration did have a clear increase in lightning for the U.K., such electrical storms might have decreased over Canada or Siberia during the period.