A group of scientists from the University of Washington in St. Louis have modeled the processes occurring in the atmosphere of Mars during the frequent dust storms there. The result was a hypothesis that atmospheric electrical discharges contribute to the formation of perchlorates - salts of perchloric acid, HClO4.
Perchlorates are traditionally considered to be poisons. When ten years ago, Lander Phoenix found them in significant numbers on one of the polar caps of Mars, it was interpreted as a sign that life on the "Red Planet" is impossible. True, optimists then already suggested that perchlorates could be traces of Lander's jet engines during landing.
In fact, everything is not quite so, and perchlorates are poisons for most terrestrial organisms, but not for all. Even we on Earth have bacteria that can benefit from this tasteless compound. And we do not know about the Martian ones yet, because they have not been found. In any case, there are significantly more perchlorates on Mars than on Earth. On Earth, they are formed in small quantities by photochemical reactions. This is not the case on Mars.
According to scientists, they were able to trace the mechanism of the formation of perchlorates as a result of atmospheric electrical discharges that occur on Mars during dust storms. Strictly speaking, this is not lightning in the usual sense.
Scientists speculate that atmospheric static electricity can provide the energy needed to form perchloric acid salts. This, in general, is similar to the Earth's mechanism of their formation, with the amendment that the Sun on Mars is much dimmer, and there are still more perchlorates.
For details, see the article published in Science.
Sergey Sysoev