What are the similarities between the principles of lightning and neon lights? Can lightning be colored?

The neon lights at night in the city show the prosperity of human society, and the beauty of the city at night is largely attributed to these colorful lights.

Have you ever wondered why neon lights can have colorful colors? This is not as simple as adding a colored glass cover to an ordinary lamp. The principle of neon lights is actually very close to a natural phenomenon, that is, lightning. So why does lightning look white, but neon lights can be colored?

In fact, the principle of neon lights is not complicated, that is, they are separated from special gases by releasing lightning-like current, thus producing different colors of light. If you want neon lights to glow red, you can turn on hydrogen. If neon lights are neon lights, they will appear orange. To emit blue light, you have to leave mercury vapor. If you want a charming pink, you just need to electrify the helium.

Colorful neon lights come from different gases.

From nature, in fact, lightning is not just a single white.

On a thunderstorm night, all the lightning we saw was white. In fact, it is only because lightning appears too fast that we can't observe it carefully. In fact, apart from white, sometimes lightning appears light blue, and sometimes it tends to be red. The color change of neon lights comes from the separation of different gases, and in nature, the composition of the earth's atmosphere is basically the same everywhere, so why do lightning appear in different colors? This is related to the energy released by lightning.

As we know, the energy released by lightning is different every time, sometimes it is high and sometimes it is weak. Generally speaking, lightning with moderate energy will appear common white, while the higher the energy, the closer to blue, and the weaker the energy, the closer to red.

Although there are three different colors of lightning, blue, white and red, due to the different levels of energy released, their differences are not obvious.

So are there any brightly colored lightning in nature? It exists. The word lightning actually covers a wide range, not just the lightning we see in thunderstorm weather. Many discharge phenomena in nature can be called lightning.

When the earth's thermal stratification generates electricity, it will produce very bright red lightning. This red lightning is gradual, the upper part is red, the color will fade and gradually turn blue. This kind of lightning has a nice name, called. Red elf lightning? Red elf lightning is a common natural phenomenon. Although this natural phenomenon is fleeting, it is not too difficult to detect because of its wide range. Usually, the width of red elf lightning can reach more than five kilometers.

Another beautiful discharge phenomenon in nature is aurora.

Aurora is a discharge phenomenon, but this discharge phenomenon does not come from the earth itself. The appearance of aurora comes from the beautiful scene that the solar wind is captured by the earth's magnetic field, and the captured solar wind reacts with molecules in the earth's atmosphere when it approaches the earth's poles. Usually, the color of aurora is mainly green.

Many people regard the aurora as a symbol of beauty, and watching it is a very romantic thing. It is the wish of many people to see the aurora once in their lifetime. I hope that those who have this wish can make their dreams come true, because this kind of beauty is only worth experiencing personally. Of course, it is not only the solar wind that can produce aurora. There are high-energy particles in the vast space, and when these high-energy particles are captured by the earth's magnetic field, they will also interact with the earth to produce aurora.

In addition to aurora, the interaction between high-energy particles from space and the earth's magnetosphere will also produce a physical phenomenon called gas.

Unlike the aurora, gas can be seen on a clear night in most parts of the world, and its color is also different. But most gases are blue or red. The essence of gas glow is actually a luminous phenomenon in the upper atmosphere of the earth, which is the brilliance produced by the photochemical interaction between cosmic high-energy particles or solar radiation and the earth's atmosphere.

As an optical phenomenon, gas glow and aurora are difficult to distinguish with naked eyes. However, there are obvious differences between the two. First, there are geographical restrictions on the appearance of aurora, mainly in the polar regions, but there is no such restriction on the gas glow. The appearance of aurora is short-term and closely related to solar activity, while the appearance of gas glow is continuous. At present, human beings can't fully understand the physical properties of various colors that occur over the earth, and there are still many new phenomena waiting for human exploration.