What causes lightning?
Matt Williams
Credit: noaanews.noaa.gov Thunder and lightning. For example, there is intra-cloud lighting (IC), which takes place between electrically charged regions of a cloud; cloud-to-cloud (CC) lighting, where it occurs between one functional thundercloud and another; and cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning, which primarily originates in the thundercloud and terminates on an Earth surface (but may also occur in the reverse direction). Thunder is also a direct result of electrostatic discharge. In addition to ground-based lightning detection, several instruments aboard satellites have been constructed to observe lightning distribution. Credit: NASA Explore further Scientist seeks new insights to study lightning