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Physicists are trying to uncover the secret of a natural phenomenon, capable of incapacitating airliner devices and undermining passenger health Dark lightning bolts become powerful sources of gamma rays (pink in the picture), and those in their in turn generate charged particles – electrons and positrons (yellow and green) – they can also disable electronics and irradiate people. Photo: NASA. Serious danger for airplanes and air passengers was announced the other day on Conference of the European Geophysical Union in Vienna. The terrible a phenomenon called “dark lightning” was discovered by scientists from Florida Institute of Technology. These lightning bolts become powerful sources of gamma radiation and streams of charged particles that able to disable electronics and irradiate people. Experts assure: passengers in an airplane caught in a thunderstorm zone, receive radiation doses, as from ten “fluorography”. And then more – like from a full body examination in x-ray tomograph. – The human eye does not notice dark lightning, – explained one of the authors of the study of these exotic lightning discharges physicist Joseph Dwyer. “But they are clearly visible from space.” Satellites record pale purplish-blue luminous zones in the clouds about a kilometer long. Dark lightning occurs at heights about 12 kilometers. The flow of radiation from the discharges is mainly down to where commercial airliners fly. For the first time a phenomenon first called “electric storm”, it was discovered for about 20 years using NASA satellites. But still he remains a mystery. – We we know for sure that the birth of dark lightnings involves cosmic rays and atmospheric electricity, another participant admitted Conference professor at the Italian National Institute astrophysicists Marco Tavani. – But how are the ranks gaining tremendous power, we can’t even imagine. After all, energy lightning emission quanta are higher than that of ordinary light or even UV light, nearly ten million times! Such radiation emits more energy than a nuclear reactor. Ordinary lightnings generate only weak x-rays. Physicists believe that A warning system should be established for these threats. – Danger for aircraft’s devices, it’s not the gamma radiation of dark lightning itself, and the neutron flux that accompanies it and can affect the operation of the equipment, explained Marco Tavani. – I do not exclude that part of the air disasters could be associated with dark lightning bolts. After all, until 1994 they were not even suspected of them. According to Dwyer, you can fix an exotic discharge either with dosimeter, or on a weak pinkish flash – during a thunderstorm it barely it is seen. And there was also hope for the Fermi telescope – one of the most sensitive and accurate tools to date. On him recently installed new software that like physicists hope they’ll allow us to detect the weakest flashes – harbingers of dark lightning. SPECIALIST COMMENT Candidate Technical Sciences, Researcher, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University Lomonosov Anatoly Ogushev: – I think you should not be very afraid of the dark lightning bolts. They are rare: about a thousand times less than ordinary. Yes, and aircraft crews usually bypass thunderstorms side, so that a direct hit even under ordinary lightning is very unlikely. By the way, what scientists know about the crafty of the ordinary Thunderstorm Experts acknowledge that atmospheric electricity, including thunderstorms, has not been studied much better than this. was a century ago. There is still no generally accepted theory thunderstorms, and regarding the location of hazardous areas in thunderclouds even among scientists there is no consensus. – Unfortunately, despite all equipment of aircraft with equipment, from lightning yet save them difficult, ”explained the doctor of technical sciences, professor Energy Institute. G.M. Krzhizhanovsky Eduard Bazelyan. -According to world statistics, there are one thousand flight hours hit. It seems to be a little, but aviation suffers quite a lot. More often lightnings choose the type of cars in which the engines are located at the rear. But now there are fewer and fewer of them. And the lightning “switched” to planes with engines on wing pylons. Like the current Boeing. – than Does the plane attract lightning? – Hot engines fly out of the engines a stream of air. The temperature is 800 degrees. Dielectric strength rarefied gas – less, here the channel is born with ease lightning bolts. In approximately the same way, lightning strikes attract bonfires, divorced on the ground. But that is not all. Usually in large planes get those lightnings that they themselves generate. These lightning does not come from surrounding thunderclouds. Discharges start from the aircraft themselves. For example, from the tail go to the cloud, and from the nose of the car – to the ground, in two directions at once. Through the plane a current of the order of hundreds of thousands of amperes passes. Fortunately, the punches are extremely rarely lead to deaths, planes manage to land. – lightning can disable aircraft devices? – Yes, the main danger lightning for technology – in electromagnetic radiation. In the blink of an eye in the affected area, modern microelectronics may clog or refuse. I think that any electronic devices are better important controls after a lightning strike will burn to the ground right away, how they will start to give false testimonies or commands as a result electromagnetic attack. – When is it likely to undergo strike from the sky – in flight or during take-off and landing? – Due to the fact that the electric capacity of an airplane in the air is small, the cloud-plane discharge has a significantly lower energy compared with the discharge of the “cloud-earth”. The most dangerous lightning for low-flying aircraft, since in this case the aircraft can play the role of a conductor of lightning current from a cloud to the ground. It is known that planes at high altitudes are relatively common struck by lightning. And yet, catastrophes on this reason single. At the same time, many cases are known. lightning strikes on take-off and landing, and even – already on the earth. Several times lightning broke the windshields of aircraft. Before tragedies did not reach just because the liners were on low altitude. If this happens at the height of the echelon – a disaster inevitable. Depressurization is occurring. QUESTION FROM AS PROTECT AIRCRAFT? As experts explained to us Energy Institute. G.M. Krzhizhanovsky every plane passes certification tests for lightning current. It happens like this. Customize the finished machine generator and pass through it a charge comparable to a thunderstorm. Today it is an electric shock of 200,000 amperes. Moreover, not one impulse, but two three. In sequence. After all, lightning is often the same paths skip repeatedly. Then they inspect everything. Especially vulnerable points: fuel tanks, antennas, external sensors. Flight safety depends on them directly, and hide them from lightning it is very difficult. The body of the aircraft is also protected from lightning. For In order to reduce the risk of ingress, the metal elements of the outdoor the skin of the aircraft carefully electrically connected with each other, and non-metallic elements are metallized. So Thus, low electrical resistance of the housing is provided. For the discharge of lightning current and other atmospheric electricity with hulls, aircraft are equipped with arresters. FROM DOSSIER “KP” Attempts on VIPs on February 28, 2003 on a plane U.S. President’s brother Jeb Bush (governor of Florida) hit lightning. None of those on board were injured, but to Bush, flying to Miami, had to make an emergency landing in Orlando. True, the lightning burned an impressive hole in the wing of the aircraft. April 28, 2005 lightning struck the plane premiere UK Tony Blair. This happened when landing, when the plane flew up to London. Blair was not injured. May 15, 2006 lightning hit the plane of US Senator Edward Kennedy. All devices turned off, and the pilot had to make an emergency landing. NASA Time Aircraft
