Over the course of 12 passes, Juno detected 613 microwave pulses from lightning, with power ranging from about the same as a lightning bolt on Earth to at least 100 times more. There is uncertainty in the interplanetary comparison, so it’s possible Jupiter’s lightning flashes could have been a million times more powerful than those on Earth.
Lightning on Jupiter is likely sparked by a mechanism similar to what happens inside Earth’s atmosphere, where ice crystals within clouds obtain an electrical charge, and voltage differentials lead to cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.
There are notable differences between the planets, too. There is no true surface on Jupiter, and ice
→ Continue reading at Ars Technica
