Scientists Capture an Acoustic Image of Thunder for the First Time With the Help of Rocket-Triggered Lightning

Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas have captured the first acoustic image of thunder with the help of rocket-triggered lightning and an array of 15 microphones. The team led by heliophysicist Maher Al-Dayeh used a small rocket to fire a Kevlar-coated copper wire into an electrically charged cloud to trigger a lightning strike.

The team compared photographs of the lightning strikes with the acoustic profiles, and can now study the results to better understand the physics of lightning.

image via University of Florida, Florida Institute of Technology, and Southwest Research Institute

via Science News