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Muons reveal the whopping voltages inside a thunderstorm

Physicists used subatomic particles to probe the inner workings of a cloud

thunderstorm

STORM SURGE  Subatomic particles called muons can expose a thunderstorm (like this one) storing up a huge electric potential — more than a billion volts.

Ian Froome/Unsplash

By Emily Conover

- More than 2 years ago

An invisible drizzle of subatomic particles has shown that thunderstorms may store up much higher electric voltages than we thought.