In case you missed it, Dr. Phillip Bitzer, associate professor of atmospheric and earth science, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning!
In the segment he addresses misconceptions about lightning, provides safety tips, and showcases how UAH researchers have played a pivotal role in developing groundbreaking lightning instrumentation and advancing lightning research.
"We talk about misconceptions – does lightning go up or down? And it starts with stuff that comes out of the cloud, but that stuff that comes out of the cloud, it's so dim, you don't make it out with your eye. The part that you see actually comes from the ground and goes up to the cloud."
The lightning bolt is about the width of your thumb, as bright as a hundred million light bulbs, and five times as hot as the surface of the sun. "It will superheat the air right around it," Bitzer said, "and eventually that superheat will cool off and relax into this acoustical wave that we all know as thunder. So, you can't have thunder without the lightning."
To learn more, check out the full story on CBS News.
