UC Berkeley researchers combined Juno microwave data and Hubble imagery to isolate and study lightning within Jupiter’s storms. The team detected 613 microwave pulses and observed roughly three flashes per second during close approaches. Estimated energies suggest Jovian bolts are typically ~100 times — and in many cases hundreds to thousands of times — more powerful than Earth lightning, offering new insight into convection in hydrogen-rich atmospheres.
Jupiter’s Storms Produce Lightning Hundreds of Times Stronger Than Earth’s, UC Berkeley Study Finds
Severe storms on Jupiter can produce lightning 100 times more powerful than on Earth
New research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that lightning on Jupiter can be far more energetic than on Earth. Using microwave measurements from NASA’s Juno spacecraft together with imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to isolate and quantify powerful lightning flashes within Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere.
Gigantic Storms, Extreme Lightning
Jupiter hosts enormous, long-lived storms — some persisting for centuries — that produce lightning bolts vastly stronger than terrestrial strikes. The planet’s equatorial diameter is about 88,846 miles, roughly 11 times wider than Earth, and it orbits the Sun at an average distance of roughly 483.7 million miles. Jupiter is so large that, if hollow, it could contain about 1,000 Earths.
How the Team Measured Lightning Power
Optical flashes on Jupiter’s nightside are often obscured by thick cloud layers, making direct brightness measurements difficult. To work around that, the Juno spacecraft uses a microwave radiometer that can detect bursts of microwave radiation produced by lightning. Microwave signals pass through the clouds and provide a clearer measure of a flash’s intrinsic power.
During a relatively calm interval in Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt in 2021–2022, researchers were able to focus on individual large storms. Combining Juno’s microwave pulses with Hubble observations, the team recorded an average of about three flashes per second during close approaches and identified 613 distinct microwave pulses attributed to lightning during the campaign.
How Powerful Is Jovian Lightning?
"Lightning tells us about convection — how an atmosphere churns and moves heat upward," said Michael Wong, a planetary scientist at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. "Convection operates differently on Jupiter because its hydrogen-rich atmosphere makes moist parcels heavier and harder to lift than on Earth."
Translating the microwave signals into energy estimates, the study finds that typical Jovian lightning strikes carry roughly 100 times — and in many cases several hundred to thousands of times — the energy of a typical Earth lightning bolt. Wong’s team gives a broad estimate that a Jupiter bolt may range from about 500 to 10,000 times the energy of an Earth bolt. Other analyses of radio emissions have even suggested extreme upper-end estimates in special cases, but these vary by method and assumptions.
"Lightning emits at radio and optical wavelengths and also generates thermal, acoustic and chemical energy," said Ivana Kolmašová, space physicist at Charles University in Prague. "On Earth, a single bolt releases about 1 gigajoule of total energy — roughly enough to power 200 average homes for an hour."
Why This Matters
Studying lightning on Jupiter helps scientists probe atmospheric convection, storm dynamics, and how energy is transported in a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere — information that can improve our understanding of other giant planets and atmospheric physics more broadly. Continued observations from Juno, Hubble and future missions will refine these energy estimates and help explain how such extreme lightning forms beneath Jupiter’s clouds.
Data Note: The Juno spacecraft detected 613 microwave pulses attributed to lightning during the campaign referenced in this study, with an observed average near three flashes per second during close passes.
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