Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents

Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects .

Why so little lightning at sea?

Using satellite data, Richard Orville and Bernard Vonnegut have compiled maps showing the global distribution of lightning at night. (At present, satellites can detect only nighttime flashes.) As might be expected, the flashes are strongly concentrated in the earth's tropical regions. The feature of the maps that is most difficult to understand is the very obvious dearth of lightning over the world's oceans.

(Anonymous; "Patterns of Thunderbolts," New Scientist, 92:102, 1981.)

Comment. Reinforcing these modern quantitative observations are the centuries-old speculations on why thunder is heard so rarely by mariners.

From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982. © 1982-2000 William R. Corliss

---

Science Frontiers Sourcebook Project Reviewed in: Icarus: Volume 41, Issue 3, p. 470-470 1984, Vol.56:3, P.615 1983, Vol.58:3 June 1984, Vol.60:3 Dec 1984, Vol.72:3 Dec 1987 Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 81, no. 1 1987 American Journal of Physics, Volume 52, Issue 8, p. 764 August 1984 Quotes "Before opening the book, I set certain standards that a volume which treads into dangerous grounds grounds like this must meet. The author scrupulously met, or even exceeded those standards. Each phenomenon is exhaustively documented, with references to scientific journals [..] and extensive quotations" -- "Book Review: The moon and planets: a catalog of astronomical anomalies", The Sourcebook Project, 1985., Corliss, W. R., Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada>, Vol. 81, no. 1 (1987), p. 24., 02/1987