On the first 2025 edition of the Talking With the Experts podcast, host Mike Nichols talks lightning with Drs. Jacquelyn Ringhausen and Yanan Zhu from the AEM research and development team and Dr. Adonis Leal of the Langmuir Lab for Atmospheric Research. Together, they provide a fascinating glimpse into how their work is increasing our understanding of lightning with an eye towards protecting communities, infrastructure, and resources better.
You can watch their conversation below to get the full story:
Here’s a timestamped breakdown of the topics the experts covered throughout their conversation:
- 0:47 - Dr. Ringhausen (Jackie) kicks the session off with a joke. Mike introduces all three lightning scientists and provides a high-level overview of each one's background and area of research.
- 5:36 - Dr. Leal (Adonis) describes his work at the Langmuir Lab in New Mexico, where he's using AI to distinguish between in-cloud lightning and cloud-to-ground lightning. He defines the difference between the two and explains why connecting with the AEM team was a breakthrough for his research.
- 8:53 - Dr. Zhu (Yanan) and Jackie share their reactions to Adonis' work and ask him some clarifying questions that bring the information down to a layperson's level.
- 13:36 - Yanan introduces his research on how lightning interacts with the environment to ignite wildfires. He explores the importance of cross-referencing lightning data with other environmental information, like precipitation, temperature, or fuel moisture data. Yanan and Jackie dive into why he believes fuel moisture is the single most important factor when it comes to lightning-based wildfires.
- 18:47 - Mike asks Jackie to connect Yanan and Adonis' work to her own research into interplay between lightning and wind turbines. She introduces the idea that turbines themselves may have an impact on lightning patterns and thunderstorm activity, citing Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) data that suggests lightning increases in areas after wind farms are built there.
- 23:17 - Yanan and Adonis ask Jackie some follow-up questions about her intriguing findings. She gets more specific about how wind turbines attract lightning, explains why they're usually hit by upward lightning strikes, and discusses how seasonality impacts lightning-turbine interplay. The three scientists talk about how this information could be used to inform wind farm and turbine design.
- 28:50 - Mike shares how listeners can learn more about research from Drs. Ringhausen, Leal, and Zhou.
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