Lightning strikes more frequently over shipping lanes than over other stretches of water, a new study finds.
After analyzing 12 years of lightning data, Joel Thornton and colleagues found two lines of enhanced activity over two of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The mechanism, researchers suspect, involves the aerosolized particulates emitted by ships. The small particles become seeds for cloud droplets and get lofted to great heights, where they can freeze, electrify, and form thunderstorm-producing cumulonimbus clouds.
Source:http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.1.20170928a/full/
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