According to a study, when COVID-19 spreads in various countries and imposes a lockdown, when it rains there is rarely lightning. Apparently, this has an influence with human activities.
So, during lockdown, humans rarely use energy. As a result, the air and water will be cleaner. There are many reports on social media showing the brightness of the sky during the lockdown.
This makes researchers try to find other effects of lockdown. According to them, small particles in the atmosphere called aerosols have an effect on the appearance of lightning.
According to science, human activities such as driving or activities involving fossil fuels can release aerosols. Quoted from Discover Magazine, during the lockdown, aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere decreased.
Researchers at the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans last month said they found a decrease in atmospheric aerosols along with a decrease in lightning intensity.
Earle Williams, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said their team used three different methods to measure lightning intensity.
"All the results show the same trend i.e., reduced lightning activity is associated with reduced aerosol concentrations," he said.
