Observations from high-flying aircraft revealed that thunderclouds act as natural particle accelerators, emitting energetic electromagnetic radiation more often than scientists expected.
X-rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Rapid Thunderstorm Charging Produces Strong Gamma‐Ray Glows
A new study explains how thunderstorm electric fields produce strong gamma‐ray glows with oscillating gamma‐ray rates, and that these oscillations develop into intense pulse trains that closely resemble terrestrial gamma-ray flashes.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Lightning Initiating at High Altitudes May Develop Continuously
Recent radio observations reveal a new mode of initial lightning development in the form of continuous initial breakdown burst of several kilometers in length at high altitudes within thunderstorms.
Posted inNews
Curiosity Digs Up Evidence of a Cold, Wet Martian Past
Amorphous materials, which are rarely studied on Earth, yield insights into the history of Gale Crater and the early Martian environment.
Posted inNews
Did a Cosmic Explosion Make the Ionosphere Dance?
Researchers have linked a 2022 gamma ray burst to a disturbance in the upper atmosphere, but proving the connection highlights the problems with this kind of measurement.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Radar Diagnosis of the Thundercloud Electron Accelerator
Altitude-resolved S-band radar observations of graupel are used to decipher thunderstorm ground enhancements in surface electric field and gamma ray flux.
Posted inNews
Chinese-Led Solar Research Is Looking Bright
With new missions underway and planned, China is stepping up to observe our nearest stellar neighbor.
Posted inNews
How a Newly Discovered Mineral Might Explain Weird Mantle Behavior
Scientists not only synthesized davemaoite but deformed it at lower mantle conditions. They found its strength and viscosity to be substantially lower than those of other minerals that make up the lower mantle.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Observations from Space and Ground Reveal Clues About Lightning
In a coordinated monitoring effort, scientists have uncovered the timing and triggering of high-energy lightning events in the sky.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Wind: Discoveries and Impacts of a Venerable Spacecraft
Wind has been one of the most robust, diverse, long-lasting, and impactful heliophysics missions ever to have been carried out.