News Physics

Thunderstorms churn up a ‘boiling pot’ of gamma rays 

A view from a retrofitted spy plane reveals complex emissions of high-energy light

A plane flies over the tops of thunderclouds that are glowing purple.

A thunderstorm, viewed from an airplane above the clouds, glows in gamma rays (purple in this illustration).

The ALOFT team/Mount Visual (CC BY 4.0)

By Emily Conover

Above the cloud tops, thunderstorms throb with a complex, frenetic light show of high-energy radiation.

A view from a retrofitted spy plane soaring at 20 kilometers up revealed storms glowing and flickering in gamma rays, high-energy light invisible to the eye. Ten flights with the plane, NASA’s ER-2 aircraft, captured the shimmer of gamma-ray outbursts over a variety of timescales and intensities, suggesting that the emissions are more complex and more common than previously thought.