Could Lightning Research Help with Climate Change?

Lightning striking above Colorado in a 2012 storm.

A group of chemists from Penn State published their research on how lightning could be beneficial to the environment on April 29. They found that lightning can produce hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) and hydroperoxyl radicals (HO2˙), which can break down greenhouse gases and react with pollutants.  

The scientists first found their hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radical data during a flight above Colorado and Oklahoma in 2012. However, they initially thought it was a mistake and a malfunction of their instruments. They later reinvestigated their initial findings, leading to their recently published conclusions

Lighting was known to split water into hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radicals, however, this effect had never been observed before during a thunderstorm, which is when these Penn State chemists took their initial aircraft measurement. Most lightning actually does not hit the ground. Rather, it stays in the clouds, in the tropospheric region of the atmosphere—the region associated with weather—which is a significant region in terms of greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Total greenhouse gas emissions around the world in 2016.

They found great amounts of hydroxyl radicals and hydroperoxyl radicals coming from both visible and subvisible lightning, and they determined that the lightning from all storms occurring at the same time globally could account for 2-16 percent of hydroxyl radical in the atmosphere, which is the atmosphere’s primary oxidant and is sometimes referred to as the “detergent of the atmosphere.”

Hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radicals can consume greenhouse gases from the environment in chemical reactions. For instance, hydroxyl radicals can consume methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas, in the reaction as follows: 

˙OH + CH4 → ˙CH3 + H2O

Although these findings have important implications for the environment, the researchers cannot make absolute conclusions until they do more research. They need to do more aircraft measurements and look at more thunderstorms globally. However, NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration both support their work.