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Supporting STEM Education in Northern New Mexico

  • BSMA
  • Science on Tap - What's shocking about lightning?

Science on Tap - What's shocking about lightning?

  • 17 Aug 2017
  • 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
  • UnQuarked 145 Central Park Square, Los Alamos, NM
Join us for a short overview presentation followed by lively questions and discussion. Open to those of all ages.


Lightning strikes the earth more than one billion times each year, causing thousands of fatalities worldwide, and costs nearly a $1 billion in damages in the U.S. alone. When strong updrafts cause layers of positive and negative charge to develop in the atmosphere, lightning discharges occur to restore the balance of the Earth’s electrical state. Because the fundamental physical mechanisms of that discharge are not perfectly understood, lightning continues to surprise researchers despite its ordinariness. Join us as Tess Light and Tim Hamlin, both with the Lab’s Space and Remote Sensing Group, touch on research that dates back to the 1960s when it was developed in connection with space payloads that monitor the Earth for evidence of nuclear treaty violation. Learning more about lightning is an outgrowth of those sensors.


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The Bradbury Science Museum Association supports and inspires learners of all ages in Northern New Mexico and beyond through STEM Education.

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