NASA satellite reveals how lightning sparks hidden pollution

Scientists from the University of Maryland have recently been able to watch lightning storms create pollution in the atmosphere almost as they happen, thanks to a new experiment with a NASA satellite.

The researchers used the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, launched last year, to take high-frequency readings of nitrogen oxides during summer thunderstorms over the eastern United States. The satellite usually measures air quality once an hour, but in this study, it captured data every ten minutes, giving scientists a close-up view of how lightning alters the atmosphere.

According to an article by Maryland Today on the matter, lightning is responsible for around 10 to 15% of the nitrogen oxides in the air. These gases can worsen ozone pollution, which in turn affects breathing conditions such as asthma. Unlike traffic fumes, which pollute closer to the ground, lightning produces nitrogen oxides higher up, where they can fuel warming and be carried over long distances, states the article.

Professor Kenneth Pickering, one of the scientists in the project, said the ability to track storms at such short intervals was a breakthrough. "Thunderstorms evolve on a rapid basis. They often build up, intensify, and die within an hour's time. These short-interval observations give us better snapshots of what actually happens during a storm," he said, as per the article.

The team also used lightning flash counts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites to estimate how much nitrogen oxide each strike created, and how long the gases lingered. Associate Research Scientist Dale Allen, another member of the research team, told Maryland Today that the findings could improve climate models and air quality forecasts.

Lightning pollution, however, is not entirely harmful. It also sparks the formation of hydroxyl radicals, molecules that help clean the atmosphere by breaking down greenhouse gases like methane, explains the findings.

The researchers believe their work could shed light on how much of the pollution in Earth's atmosphere comes from human activity and how much is natural. More importantly, they hope it will help scientists understand how increasingly intense storms in a warming world will affect the air we breathe.