Stepped leader of lightning
Líder escalonado del rayo
- Date
- 1933-1935 · confidence high
- Place
- Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
- Credited to
- Basil Schonland, D. J. Malan and H. Collens
- People
- 👤 Basil Schonland1896–1972
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Using Boys cameras with rotating lenses, they photographed lightning advancing in downward steps before the return stroke. It established the modern physics of atmospheric discharge.
The frequent Highveld storms made Johannesburg a natural laboratory.
What it led to
- lightning protection based on discharge physics
- the Bernard Price Institute of Geophysics
- studies of atmospheric electricity