Lightning Simulation

High speed video and a thunderstorm?

Kudos to your daughter.

You make it sound so easy! But I like it, that's a great idea - thank you.

I recently read that the jury is still out on the point of whether the lightening comes from the ground up, the clouds down or is simultaneous. Does lightening travel at light speeds as electricity does ? In any case, I believe high speed videos would be her best visual technique if you know where the lightening is going to strike. I wonder if there is a way to trigger a lightening strike.

Your daughter has chosen an interesting topic.

There was a whole series of lightning photos taken around the late 1930s using, I think, a Boye camera. I haven't seen those for perhaps 30 years but they might still be around. You might try Library of Congress. Or NOAA.

More to the point, what I think you'll find is that, for the majority of strikes, a leader starts down from the clouds and, as it nears the earth, the air begins to break down and another leader starts up to meet it and then there are often surges back and forth several times. Ground to cloud happens most frequently at locations that look like lightning rods, i.e., church steeples, tv towers, a 7 iron.

As to demonstrations, I'd stick with pictures.

I'm enjoying the suggestions about using pictures instead of replicating the real thing, it's definitely alot safer. - Thanks