Research by Taiwanese scientists on gigantic jets of lighting linking thunderclouds and the ionosphere was published yesterday in this week's edition of Nature magazine.
According to Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權), director of the council's National Space Program Office, the letter to Nature detailed the first conclusive observation data in the world indicating that a direct optical path was established from the thunderclouds about 15km above the Earth's surface to the ionosphere at the height of about 90km.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee, one of co-authors of the letter, stressed that the conventional picture of the global electric circuit needs to be modified to include the contributions of these gigantic jets and possibly sprites.
On July 22 last year, a team led by two physicists at National Cheng Kung University, Su Han-tzong (蘇漢宗) and Hsu Ruey-rong (許瑞榮), took high-resolution images of a rare "giant blue jet," which feeds energy from thunderstorms up into the ionosphere.
Researchers stationed on the southern tip of Taiwan and the university campus observed five giant blue jets, which extended from a thundercloud above the South China Sea near Luzon Island, The Philippines, to the electrically conducting ionosphere.
"A fully-developed gigantic jet optically spanned the thundercloud top at 15 km and the ionosphere at 90 km elevation," Lee said.
The upper bodies of the gigantic jets, which lasted for just 800 milliseconds, was similar to sprites, but their lower bodies resembled blue jets, Lee said.
Lee said that there was no evidence suggesting that the event was triggered by cloud-to-ground lightning. However, Lee said, extremely-low-frequency (ELF) radio waves associated with four of the five gigantic jets were detected by Japanese scientists working at stations in Antarctica and Japan.
In the last 10 years, scientists have discovered that the atmosphere above thunderclouds is not as tranquil as many people imagined.
Anecdotes told by pilots about transient luminous event have been captured by high-tech equipment since 1994. Those events have been classified into three categories: lighting-induced red sprites, upwardly discharging blue jets and gigantic jets.
The discovery of a "giant blue jet" by Victor Pasko of Pennsylvania State University in September 2001 was reported in a Nature cover story in April last year.
In 2001, a National Cheng Kung University team's images of red sprites were chosen as cover photo of Vol. 29 of Geophysical Research Letters,which was published in April last year.
"The potential of Taiwanese scientists deserved to be greatly encouraged," National Science Council Vice Chairman Hsieh Ching-chih (
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS