There is an extremely large energy release from lightning strikes and it happens on time scales of microseconds. This is similar, but not quite as fast, as some fusion experiments involving pulses of energy. I was going down the possibility that there is indeed fusion reactions happening here, though most scientists say this is unlikely because the temperatures reached are several orders of magnitude lower than what is commonly associated with fusion events.
The other thing to consider is that positrons are never associated with fusion of the most likely kinds of light nuclei including hydrogen, deuterium, tritium, helium, lithium, and boron. It seems clear to me that the observed gamma rays are coming from positron-electron annihilation but this interjects more questions than answers. Where did they come from??
Positron emission isn't really that rare and it even used in medicine. But typically in these situations, it is related to natural radioisotope decay. The usual suspects include carbon-11, potassium-40, nitrogen-13, oxygen-15, aluminium-26, sodium-22, fluorine-18, and iodine-121. Three of those elements are present commonly in the atmosphere.
In all of these cases, decay into positrons, and neutrinos are controlled by the weak nuclear force. The rate of decay or half-life product generation is commonly assumed to be constant but I've seen articles that suggest that it isn't.
If the weak nuclear force is NOT constant this has vast implications for technology that could be far more important than fusion technology will ever be. The question is, of course, can it be controlled, triggered, or manipulated. lightning is an electric phenomenon typically over a hundred million volts to more than a billion volts for Positive lighting. Positive lightning is about one hundredth as common as negative lightning. If a billion volts is required to accelerate weak force moderated decay it might never have any technological applications. But if it isn't it could open the door to all kinds of human mischief including power production.
Concerning TGF I am interested in a theory that fits the facts. So far I've seen nothing that does. What do you think is really going on?
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