Weather phenomenon that eluded scientists for decades captured in nature as corona discharges glow on tips of leaves.
Weather phenomenon that eluded scientists for decades captured in nature as corona discharges glow on tips of leaves.
In a converted 2013 Toyota Sienna affixed with a hand-built telescopic weather device protruding from the roof, Penn State experts in meteorology and atmospheric science made their way down the nation’s eastern coast in June 2024 in search of Florida’s famed near-daily summer thunderstorms.
They were hoping to catch corona discharges, a long-hypothesized atmospheric weather phenomenon where miniscule pulses of electricity dance at the tips of tree leaves, causing the canopy to glow in the ultraviolet (UV). For more than 70 years, scientists have suspected treetops might emit these corona electrical discharges because of odd electric field activity in and over forests during storms, yet they have never been documented outside the lab.
The team, consisting of William Brune, distinguished professor of meteorology and atmospheric science; Patrick McFarland, a doctoral candidate in meteorology and atmospheric science; Jena Jenkins, assistant research professor; and David Miller, a former associate research professor who is now at the Penn State Applied Research Lab; worked to be the first to document this effect.
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