School: HIGHLAND HIGH
Area of Science: Earth and Space Sciences
There are over four million lightining strikes every day on Earth, and there is also cosmic rain decending on the planet which is made up of highly energized charged particels. Recent studies have proposed that there is a connection between these two phenomenons. Though the process of spark generation has been known for a couple of hundred years, the actual generation of lightining in real clouds has not been explained because there just is not enough voltage generated in actual cloud measurements.
We propose to create a model first with Starlogo and then Java that simulates an atmosphere in which neutral paricles are placed under large volteges. We would then introduce a cosmic ray event that produces energy, X-rays in the real world, that would spark a lightining event in our atmosphere.
We hope to contact and elicit help from scientists at New Mexico Tech and an institute in Florida that are currently working on lightining phenomenon.
Sponsoring Teacher: Jeffrey Raloff