Lightning can produce from 2 – 16% of the amount of hydroxyl. The hydroxyl radical is important in the atmosphere because it triggers chemical reactions and breaks down air pollutant molecules like methane. Decomposition of atmospheric pollutants Lightning may play a bigger role than we thought in a fundamental process that helps clean our air of pollutants, according to the results of a new study. Lightning strikes during storms produce large amounts of molecules called oxidizing radicals, which can break down gases such as carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. These are atmospheric pollutants that can contribute to global warming and damage to the ozone layer. Carbon monoxide and methane enter the atmosphere from both natural and industrial sources. Methane is produced by the decomposition of plants, but is also released by oil and gas development and agriculture. Carbon monoxide and other polluting hydrocarbons can be generated by industries and wildfires. However, natural processes in the atmosphere, driven mainly by sunlight, have produced molecules called radicals, the most important of which are hydroxyls. These molecules are very chemically active (meaning that they are more likely to react with other molecules) and can react with pollutants to form new compounds that are harmless or potentially harmful. can be easily attached to water and released into the air. New research led by Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor William Brune has found that lightning produces far more hydroxyl molecules than previously known. His work shows that more than 10% of the supply of these scavenging radicals in the atmosphere can be generated by lightning storms. Use an airplane to fly through the storm Lightning’s ability to clean the atmosphere. The work involved flying NASA’s DC-8 research plane through deep convection thunderstorms to collect data. According to Professor Brune, this is not as dangerous as one might think. “Very interesting indeed. The pilots are phenomenal. They know what they’re doing. They know how to keep planes safe. But it’s really interesting because you can see deep convection and this is very close and personal,” said Prof. Brune. “We did this study in 2012, flying over central China. America and try to see what’s going into the storm chemically, what’s going to come up above. And to our surprise, we saw a very large amount of OHs (hydroxyl molecules). At first, we did not believe the signals received. They are huge, a thousand times larger than the largest mass we have ever seen.” The data collected from the aircraft was compared with data collected from radio receivers on the ground that track lightning flashes in the clouds. Both data sets confirmed the production of high amounts of hydroxyl radicals due to lightning strikes. Hydroxyl radicals are produced when the energy of lightning strikes breaks down water vapor in the atmosphere. “You can think of it like water that has removed the hydrogen atom and then wants to get that hydrogen back. So it becomes very active as it goes and tries to get the hydrogen back,” he said. That means the hydroxyl radical is very reactive with methane or carbon monoxide molecules. Climate change models need to be updated According to the scientists, about 1,800 lightning storms circulate around the planet, which leads the researchers to estimate that this phenomenon produces between 2% and 16% of the amount of hydroxyl present in the atmosphere.

A single lightning bolt can release up to a billion volts, tens of thousands of amps, travel at more than 434,000 km/h and in just a few millionths of a second reach 30,000 degrees Celsius – hotter than the surface of the Sun. Professor Brune admits that it is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of this process on a global scale. The results of this study were based on a limited number of flights over a small portion of the United States. There is still a lot of information that needs to be gathered to create a global picture. However, Professor Brune believes that the hydroxyl generated by lightning has a significant worldwide impact. Previous models suggested that lightning was not a significant contributor to the clean-up of the atmosphere. “Our best estimate right now is from 2%, which is quite important, to more than 10%, which is very important, for the total cleanup of the atmosphere. These estimates may change as our planet warms. Some climate change models show an increase in thunderstorm activity, which means more hydroxyl production and more cleaning of the atmosphere in the future. Other climate models suggest that there may not be much lightning, but lightning strikes will be more intense and may also alter the numbers. In any case, future models of climate change and global pollution will have to take into account this new information about the cleaning of the atmosphere, according to Professor Brune. Existing models may need updating.

Theoretically, the limit of low temperature in the universe is called “absolute zero”, the value is 0 K, converted to the commonly used temperature unit of -273.15 degrees Celsius. And to prove the existence of absolute zero, mankind has had to conduct a lot of experiments over a very long time and the story of this limit value is also quite interesting from a scientific perspective. because when the concept was introduced, no one could conduct experiments near that temperature. But the specific concept of absolute zero was not formed overnight, instead it was studied, observed and concluded by generations of scientists. As early as 1702, the French physicist Guillaume Amonton questioned whether there was a limit to cold. He improved a thermometer that used air and mercury. The volume of air changes with temperature, causing some of the mercury to move to show the scale. The minimum value of the thermometer has a limit, which is the point 0 (according to today’s calculations, it is about -240 degrees Celsius). Until the end of the 18th century, many physicists tried to discover this low temperature limit. In 1785, Jacques Charles, a French physicist discovered the relationship between the temperature and the volume of a gas at constant pressure. In his experiments, he found that in the case of constant volume, for every 1 degree Celsius decrease, the pressure of the gas will decrease by 1/273 of its pressure at 0 degrees Celsius. According to this rule, when the gas temperature drops to -273 degrees Celsius, the pressure becomes zero – vacuum environment. Later, the English physicist William Thomson (ie 1st Baron Kelvin) gave the first formal form based on the summation and speculation of his predecessors about the concept of absolute zero – understood as a state in which the interior of the object can be reduced to zero and completely stop the motion of the molecules. Accordingly, one of the ultimate goals in the field of thermodynamics is a great battle to challenge absolute zero. And of course, this goal cannot be achieved overnight. Michael Faraday. The first major figure in this race was Michael Faraday. By 1845, he had obtained various forms of liquid gases through primary compression. With his technology at the time, he was able to achieve temperatures as low as -130 degrees Celsius. However, during that time he was still unable to liquefy some gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen. This was due to theoretical limitations at the time, so Faraday believed that these gases were “permanent gases” and could not be compressed into a liquid state. In the late 1870s, French physicist Louis Paul Cailletet pioneered the production of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, which could be obtained at low temperatures of -183 degrees Celsius and -196 degrees Celsius, respectively. To achieve this, Louis Paul Cailletet applied the Joule-Thomson effect. James Dewar. The next important person was a Scottish chemist and physicist – James Dewar, who would challenge hydrogen, the last “eternal gas” at the time. Scientists at the time expected to be able to produce liquid hydrogen at as little as -250 degrees Celsius. This temperature was an impossible challenge with the technology and equipment at the time, so Dewar had to invented new devices to be able to conduct this research. His plan was to use a gas that could be compressed and liquefied at room temperature, then allowed it to expand and return to a low temperature and then continue to use this temperature to liquefy other gases that are more difficult to liquefy . In this way, after a series of stages, it is possible to reach a temperature low enough to liquefy the hydrogen. But to do that, Dewar was forced to create new equipment and tools for research, which required a lot of money. So Dewar demonstrated some of the unique properties of liquefied petroleum gas to guests in the Royal Society’s laboratory, and used experiments to attract investors’ attention. But the experiment didn’t go well, in 1886, a terrible explosion occurred in a London laboratory, Dewar accidentally mixed liquid oxygen with liquid ethylene and caused an explosion, which subsequently caused the His scientific career was almost over. Soon, however, Dewar produced 20 cubic centimeters of liquid hydrogen through a multistage cascade of methyl chloride-ethylene-oxygen-hydrogen. At that time, the tank had a pressure of 180 atm (atmosphere) and the temperature reached -205 degrees Celsius. Dewar then put liquid hydrogen into the expansion tube and watched the temperature of the thermometer gradually decrease, eventually, he achieved a new record of -252 degrees Celsius, considered to have completed the impossible challenge for the predecessors. Faraday duty. However, shortly after the experiment was successful, a new gas was born – the inert helium gas. Next, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes went on to undertake this research and built a factory to produce magnetic liquid hydrogen using Dewar’s equipment and miraculously produced liquid helium, reaching temperatures lows of -269°C (4.2 K). At this near absolute zero temperature, many substances will exhibit unprecedented states, including fluid mechanics, electromagnetism and other related properties, which also earned Onnes the Nobel Prize in Physics in in 1913. But so far, no one has been able to conduct an experiment to achieve theoretical absolute zero – the value is 0 K, converted to the commonly used temperature unit of -273. ,15 degrees C.