Deeper Look – Episode 7
Let’s go over some basics about how lightning happens… the entire mindset of scientists has changed due to recent advances.
So what was the answer? How does this process work? What does it take to make a TGF? The cosmic rays ionize the atmosphere along the line of travel, creating a pseudo-wire that allows the arc discharge of lightning to be produced. One can envision a simple correlation between the amount of energy from space that penetrates our atmosphere, and the intensity of the lightning, TGFs, sprites, etc.
Links:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30103561
http://www.swsc-journal.org/articles/swsc/pdf/2013/01/swsc120043.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364682609002983
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/9/11/115009/article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/10230097/Rare-sprite-lightning-caught-on-camera.html