Watch Spectacular wonder of nature: "Catatumbo phenomenon"

Hello friends of steemit especially to the great community of steemStem disappeared for a few days due to problems with the internet in the area where I live, I missed reading excellent scientific publications and of course sharing with the community.

As you know I dedicate myself to Physics specifically in the area of ​​semiconductor materials science, I have already written some posts related to my field, but this time I want to get away from the subject that relates me and I want to publish something totally different, Of course it has to do with physics but not semiconductors, I would like to show you something spectacular that happens almost daily at night in my country and maybe many readers have heard about it. This is the wonderful Catatumbo lightning,, which consists of a series of electrical discharges that occur in a region in my beautiful country Venezuela, this phenomenon is a wonder of nature and I will talk to you a little what does it consist of:

Source

In the lake basin of Maracaibo, specifically in the southwest where the union of the Perijá mountain range and the Andean mountain range, is located a sector known as Catatumbo that has a high electromospheric activity, this has been studied for several years by different scientists using satellite data, and such studies have reflected that it is number one in the world with a total of 181 flashes per square kilometer per year and perhaps second compared to one of the sites that more electromospheric activity than there is also on the planet earth located on the African continent.

Oreographic map of the southwestern area of Maracaibo lake in Venezuela where the Catatumbo lightning flashes occur. Image provided by the scientific modeling center of the University of Zulia.
jfblueplanet

Location of the region where Catatumbo lightning flashes occur.
Scienceline

In Venezuela at the beginning of 2010 orcrurrio a great drought called "el niño" this drought brought with it many climatic changes in the country, where it was speculated that the Catatumbo lightning was disappearing, but this news was only unfounded speculations, and despite of this fact happens the opposite is that Dr. Ángel Muñoz, a person who has been studying this phenomenon for a large part of his life, tells us that as the years go by, these lightning flashes are becoming stronger and that the electrost the whole region is increasing.

• Cmc research.

Professor Muñoz is the director of the scientific modeling center (cmc) located in the Univerdad del Zulia in Venezuela, along with the other members of this research center have made different expeditions to the place where each night this series of lightning flashes and have conducted studies where they have been able to determine that the epicenter of these events and I call them that because they are multiple lightning bolts that are scattered throughout the area already mentioned in an area of about 2500 square meters. And it is that the most spectacular of this phenomenon is that it can be observed from very distant places, both in provinces within Venezuela, as well as from our neighboring country Colombia and even from the Caribbean Sea in the islands closest to the Venezuelan territory such as Aruba, Curaçao and bonaire.

One of the research of Professor Muñoz and the scientific modeling center consisted of putting together an expedition with several researchers including Prof. David Sierra Porta, excellent professor at the University of Zulia who had the pleasure of being his student during my career like Professor Muñoz. This investigation consists of assembling a series of balloons inflated with hydrogen and throwing them into the air at an approximate height of 1000 meters, these balloons were tied to the ground by medium to the base height of the clouds, to then collect all the information necessary to perform the corresponding studies, the data collected were records of atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, etc. This investigation was carried out for four days, the data collected were then analyzed by computer software where they successfully showed that future storms and lightning could be predicted in the area.

"The prediction methodology is based on the effect of the so-called Low Level Nocturnal Jet of the Maracaibo Lake Basin, a" tide "of winds that moves from north to south and from south to north at different times of the day."

Shows the absolute frequency of lightning flashes and the total number of flashes (lightning flashes) for the period 1998-2005.
CMC

Density of flashes (number of lightnings per year per square kilometer) for the period 1998-2005.
CMC

It should be noted that the CMC uses the LIS satellite data belonging to NASA to collect and extract essential information for the study of this wonderful phenomenon, this software used by NASA can give us through its satellite sensor all the meteorological information of the area in question.

• Why does this phenomenon occur?

According to Dr. Muñoz, it occurs mainly because of its geographical location, since it is so close to the center of planet Earth, that is to say the line of the Equator, and of course it is also due to being close to Lake Maracaibo since this Lake is a very important source of humidity in the region, it is also due to the presence of trade winds, the presence of various weather phenomena called intertropical convergence zones, as it has to do with the type of clouds that form in the region, since the speed or intensity with which the rise of air masses that occurs from the surface level to the upper layer, this is that there is a distribution of charges or particles inside the cloud and how much more intense is this ascent to the top result in electric shocks are more intense and this happens precisely within the clouds.

• Can this phenomenon regenerate the ozone layer?

It is said that these lightning can be the main regenerative agent of the ozone layer of the planet, however many studies reveal the opposite. To explain it in an easy way we could say it in this way:
The ozone that is good, that is, the stratospheric ozone, this is not found in the lower part of the atmosphere but it is located at a height of 25 km in height of our latitude, that ozone is not produced by electrical storms , if not that it is produced by another type of meteorological phenomenon that happens exactly at that height and is strictly related to solar radiation, then it is said that it takes approximately 6 months to be able to ascend from 18km in height to 25 km in height , ozone has a life time of a few hours, which is why it is very unlikely that this phenomenon of Catatumbo can directly regenerate our ozone layer.

• Does this phenomenon have any use?

After several studies on this phenomenon, from the scientific point of view there are people who have used this research to understand what happens thousands of kilometers away, for example satellites within the solar system, where there is a high concentration of methane gas and These electric shocks occur. From this aspect and even to the most complex aspects in the field of science to understand our relationship with Catatumbo lightning as it influences the environment and the climate changes that are occurring on our planet today, they are an essential part of future studies and applications.

To finish the post thanks to the CMC I will show you an image where it shows the formation of the Catatumbo lightning in southwestern Venezuela.

CMC

Live video of the Catatumbo lightning series