A unique physical phenomenon was discovered in space by the Russian microsatellite Tatiana. We are talking about radiation unknown to science in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere, which cannot be seen with the naked eye
The glow resembles giant lightning striking upward. However, it occurs where there are no thunderstorms, lightning or clouds. The satellite "Tatiana-2", although it was with the prefix "micro" and worked in orbit for some four months, but was able to transmit data that turned the ideas of scientists about the processes taking place in the earth's atmosphere.
In the stuffing of "Tatiana-2" there were devices with ultraviolet filters - the development of scientists at Moscow State University, which made it possible to record completely new phenomena in the sky. For convenience, they are still called lightning. But from the usual ones - those that can be seen in a thunderstorm - they, of course, differ fundamentally in two things. These are very high energy discharges. And they do not hit the ground, but upward, into the ionosphere.
“The length of ordinary lightning is about two kilometers high, between the cloud and the ground. The same - from 40 to 100 kilometers. We are accustomed to the fact that lightning is a thin cord, but these high-frequency discharges are sprites, elves and blue jets, their transverse size reaches 100 kilometers,”says Pavel Klimov, junior researcher at the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
The sensationalism of the information conveyed by "Tatiana" lies in the fact that these outbreaks appear not only where there are thunderclouds. The formation of powerful discharges does not depend on the weather. This is the first thing. The second discovery is that lightning has not chosen the entire surface of the globe. They, for example, do not exist in Siberia, over deserts and oceans. But there are many over the European part of Russia, in Latin America and over Australia.
A lot is hundreds of discharges per second, regardless of the time of day. Flashes appear and disappear for several hours. Unexplored and unpredictable atmospheric phenomena are bad, first of all, for aviation. Nobody can say now how lightning will behave there. Moscow scientists have found that some upward discharges are formed at a 10-kilometer altitude, mastered by aircraft. “For high flights there can be a certain level of radiation.
Moreover, there may be accompanying phenomena - gamma-ray bursts. What are GRBs? Gamma-ray bursts are harder radiation, it can have an effect on equipment,”says Violetta Morozenko, junior researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. Microsatellite "Tatiana-2" was invented and assembled within the walls of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University. This is its one-to-two layout: on the sides - high-frequency communication antennas for transmitting scientific information to Earth, in the center - a panel, a solar battery with a special sensor.
“In order for the spacecraft to turn towards the sun with a battery, in order to more efficiently perceive the energy coming from the sun, the load is located on the back side and covered with mats. Vacuum thermal insulation - so that the equipment does not freeze and overheat,”explains Nikolai Vedenkin, senior researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
In the next few years, Russian scientists want to send a whole caravan of satellites into space in order to study lightning and understand what to expect from them in the future. Another satellite is now being prepared for launch at the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics.
It is expected to be launched into orbit early next year. Packed with the most sensitive and modern equipment, the satellite should help scientists answer the questions - how, for what reason, lightning is formed in the upper layers of the atmosphere and why only in certain points of the globe.
