Prof. Colin Price from Tel Aviv University and his colleagues Prof. Yoav Yair and Dr. Mustafa Asfor from the Open University have found a surprising connection between the lightning activity in the hurricane clouds and the strength of the winds in the heart of the storm, which will make it possible to know what strength to prepare for long before the hurricane reaches the coast
Prof. Colin Price from Tel Aviv University and his colleagues Prof. Yoav Yair and Dr. Mustafa Asfor from the Open University found a surprising connection between the lightning activity in the hurricane clouds and the strength of the winds in the heart of the storm. In an article to be published on April 6 in the journal Nature Geosciences.
The Israeli scientists studied the electrical activity in 58 hurricanes of the strongest degrees that occurred between 2005 and 2007 and found that in 56 of them a high and significant positive correlation was found between the intensity of the hurricane and the lightning activity within them. In addition, it was found that in 70% of the storms studied, the lightning activity reached its peak and preceded the time when the winds in the hurricane reached their maximum strength, a fact that offers a possible sign of advance prediction of the storm's intensification. The lightning in the hurricane peaked a full day before the winds in the storm peaked.
Today, lightning storms can be monitored through global networks in real time all over the planet using a relatively small number of detectors connected to each other via the Internet and accurately synchronized based on GPS time. One of the network's stations is located in Tel Aviv, and displays a real-time image of lightning storms in the world that can be viewed for free on the website http://wwlln.net/. Since lightning activity inside hurricanes can be monitored using this network anywhere on the planet, this will make it possible to use the lightning data in the future to improve the prediction of the strength of hurricanes.
Hurricanes are among the deadliest storms on Earth, causing enormous damage and loss of life across the globe every year. There is also evidence that the intensity and frequency of strong hurricanes is increasing due to climate warming. Due to the fact that they spend a significant part of their existence in the heart of the tropical oceans where they form, a place where there are also no people and few observations, hurricanes continue to be a mystery. Despite this, significant advances and improvements in the ability to locate lightning storms around the world allow researchers to identify the electrical "heartbeats" of these monstrous storms.
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In fact, it can be said that Nature is one of the most important and famous magazines, if not the most famous, and that most scientists would give quite a bit to publish in it.
However (and regardless) not everything published there is necessarily true.
Nature is not a popular science journal but a scientific journal reviewed by peers. I suppose it will be possible to read the full article in the journal itself and not in Science.
Nichar is a popular scientific magazine (and so is the science) and they are based on scientific facts and do not go into the depth of things. This is intended to bring the general public closer to science.
Why not publish the correlation?
"High and significant" is meaningless