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14 December 2010
It’s Raining Electrons!
We all know that it can rain a great many odd things: cats and dogs, men, and even, in one particularly bizarre instance in Argentina in 2007, spiders. But before attending session AE13B: Thunderstorm Effects in the Near-Earth Space Environment I, I had never heard of raining electrons. I guess I could be excused for missing them. Electron precipitation occurs in the ionosphere, hundreds of kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and can be caused by lightning strikes.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.