Lightning energy LIGHTNING ENERGY: CAN IT BE TAMED? I landed in Kashebere village in Democratic Republic of Congo as a part of United Nations. This village is a beautiful village at an altitude of 2000 meters above mean sea level and is near to the equator. On average there are eight to nine months of a rainy season in one year and hence it is densely forested. A particular day has generally all seasons and temperature variations. Morning it is covered with thick fog (visibility five meters only) then it opens up and day becomes dry and hot taking temperatures to 35 degrees. After 1 pm the white clouds start forming up which generally change their shades to gray by 3 pm. By 4 pm the thundering and lightning starts, and is followed by rainfall for duration of one to two hours. The nights become very cold and chilly dropping the temperatures to 8 degrees. The daily timetable may change but without changing in pattern. As a curious electrical engineer, it was both fascinating and the best available natural laboratory for me to study the effects such as thundering and lightning. I could relate the theories put with reference to Lightning engineering with that of practical observations. This article highlights on the relations established as per the observations with respect to heavy energy transfers done by water vapour molecules in form of lightning and thundering. Debatable statements (and some myths) relating to lightning that I had heard before I had related them with observations are as under. a) It falls on highest elevated point. b) The lightning conductor can protect the area. c) The water vapour form in ions and aligns such that there is charge concentration of the order of Mega Volts and beyond. d) The positive and negative charges attract and break the air causing visual lightning and audible thundering. e) The molecules of water vapour loose energy to form water droplets which is mainly responsible for tornadoes, wind storms, hurricanes, lightning and thundering. f) Carbon di oxide is responsible for lightning. g) Lightning is attracted by Copper and we should not wear rings while lightning. h) Most of the time lightning travel in the direction of Earth as it is oppositely charged. i) Lightning is accompanied by thunder. j) Lightning happen when heavy winds collides the layered clouds. k) Piezoelectric effect forms in a cloud. l) The lightning travels from cloud to ground in a straight path of minimum distance. However with the practical observations and calculations I could get different results. We shall discuss them one by one. Observations I observed that this effect takes irrespective of day or night. This effect also takes place in presence or without heavy winds. Both lightning and thundering may occur jointly or without. I had noticed that only one of these effects is also produced in isolation. The frequency of inter cloud lightning was more than that of cloud to ground. The lightning caused damages at certain points even though these ground features were lower in elevation with reference to installed two lightning conductors. All the waves did not reach the ground. They did not travel in straight line but were generally noticed travelling in mesh and branched manner. The sparks branched sometimes and even joined back. The intensity of light was not uniform in the entire length of spark. Few of the branches of spark also travelled in upward direction i.e. away from gravitation. The sparks kept on forming in an intermittent pattern. Their path was seldom repeated. The sparks travelled from one point and travelled to another point in a curved linear direction at varying speeds. Lightning happened in clouds irrespective of the fact that they were stationary or moving or colliding. The thunder sound source was also noticed to be traveling in linear fashion or else it was only instantaneous. Electromagnetic effects on electronic circuitry and shock waves were largely observed. It resulted in temporary rise in voltage in electric lines. Lightning happened only when there were black clouds present. There was no effect of this lightning and thundering in white clouds even when these both types are formed due to water vapour. Lightning did not happen in fog. Theory and Calculations Water chemically known as H20 has a molar mass of 18.0152833 gms/mol and maximum saturation at 30 degrees which is 30 gms/ m3. Taking 6.023 x 1023 molecules per mole of water vapour in 1m3 is 1.003x 1024 have 2 hydrogen atoms. If all of them were to become H+ ions it would be 2.006x 1024. The ionization energy of all these hydrogen atoms would be around 4.36 x 106 Joules. For the volume of 1 km by 1 km by 100 meters it would be theoretically 4.36 x 1014 Joules. The heat of vaporization is theoretically 2.27x106 and for this volume of water vapour at the max density would be 3.78x1011 Joules. We can read through the figures and notice that even if complete heat of condensation (or vaporization) is converted in the ionization of Hydrogen, it would not be sufficient. Moreover due to entropy large amount of heat released during the process of condensation is transformed in heavy winds. Some of the above mentioned assumed statements become debatable with this theoretical calculation. Hence the question arises what is it that increases the potential of water vapour and how? Next we see that dielectric breakdown capacity of air is 33 KV/cm and with humidity it decreases considerably. The breakdown term means that an insulator becomes a conductor for the duration of applied high voltage above its breakdown capacity. For various elements such as wood it is still lower. Another factor is the geometry of the terrain. For 1m distance the breakdown potential is approximately 3.3 MV. Now when we see naturally the distances (100 meters and beyond) between the theoretical of highest point of elevation may not hold good always as there would be a stream of dense vapour present which would have lesser breakdown capacity. It is possible that lightning produces has voltages less than GV but more than few MV. In this point of debate we see that the lightning conductor may only give passage to the spark but due to uneven water vapour content the air may not breakdown as we always hope. The wire mesh form increase the probability of receiving lightning bolts but are more costly. Till now no one has found the actual reasons for the lightning. But on observing hundreds of times, I have few important findings and hypothetical answers to our questions. We know that the term voltage means the ratio of charge to capacitance which also means electromotive force. The hydrogen atom has different energy bands. Here we are going to apply some of our experimental observations. Firstly the water vapour absorbs infrared radiations. They also absorb ultra violet and cosmic radiations. I would like to add in this that water vapour also absorb visible range radiations. It is because we have seen that some of the clouds are dark. Next we know that there is one electron in the H atom which is paired with one valence of Oxygen atom in water for more stability. Thirdly we are aware that there is intermolecular affinity of various molecules of water. Fourthly and most importantly the physical chemistry of the water molecule is responsible for the huge energy transfer in our Earth. On these known facts we are going to discuss three theories that may help in understanding the lightning and thundering effects. These theories are interrelated for some of the statements mentioned in them. Detonation wave theory The term detonation means a violent release of energy caused by a reaction. This detonation takes place in a wave form this implies that one water vapour molecule when releasing energy actuates the neighbouring water vapour molecule to release the energy. It was observed that the energy released is not a big explosion but a progressing wave in some unknown direction. When a molecule keeps on adding the energy it becomes unstable beyond a particular limit. This molecule releases the energy in form of photons and electromagnetic waves. The energy released in form of photons strike the other neighbouring molecule having the next maximum energy level and transferring the energy to that molecule, thus making it going in temporary unstable state. This extra charged molecule also releases energy by emitting photons and electromagnetic waves. The wave continues till the time that the photons released do not find suitable water vapour molecule having suitable high energy. The availability of the suitable water vapour molecule in the proximity decides the further direction of spark. Energy distribution and stabilization theory We know that as per Energy Band theory, the electron moves around the nucleus in an elliptical (or circular) orbit at a distance such that it remains stable. But we have not found on what happens with the energy levels when the water molecule absorbs different types of radiation. This theory states that a water vapour molecule does require some energy to reach the saturation before going into liquid or solid stage. This is done by proportional absorption of infrared, ultraviolet, visible and cosmic radiations. Water vapour molecule after reaching a particular density starts having feeble affinity towards each other. Once the energy levels have reached the saturation and the molecule are likely to become unstable (meaning electron leaving away from nucleus of H+ ion that has only one proton). The electron jumps to lower energy level releasing high amount of energy in a very short period of time. In some cases if this does not happen, then the electron may forcibly go away from the Hydrogen atom leaving only charged proton. Hence having a situation where in electrons and charged particles are floating in space. These may be for a very short duration of time but may initiate the energy levels of other molecules. Nuclear reaction theory There is high possibility that the H+ ions (protons) may collide with each other in the presence of cosmic radiations or may get fused in heavier atoms such as Carbon, Oxygen or Nitrogen making it temporarily unstable. This would release instantaneous energy. The Japanese team of scientists had already reported that gamma radiations were also observed before the bolt of lightning in July 2013. These radiations would increase the energy levels up to the saturation limits and actuate the energy emission. Conclusion Nature has its own unexplained mysteries. The effects of lighting and thunder are one of the biggest mysteries for engineers. The experiments and practical observations may help us in understanding and probable taming this energy source. What challenges lay ahead of us is to make an engineering approach and control this magical source of tremendous energy for the development of mankind.
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