Could macroscopic dark matter (macros) give rise to mini-lightning flashes out of a blue sky without clouds?

Abstract

A recent study pointed out that macroscopic dark matter (macros) traversing through the earth's atmosphere can give rise to hot and ionized channels similar to those associated with lightning leaders. The authors of the study investigated the possibility that when such channels created by macros pass through a thundercloud, lightning leaders may locked into these ionized channels creating lightning discharges with perfectly straight channels. They suggested the possibility of detecting such channels as a means of detecting the passage of macros through the atmosphere. In this paper, we show that macros crossing the atmosphere under fair weather conditions could also give rise to mini lightning flashes with current amplitudes in the order of few hundreds of Amperes. These mini lightning flashes would generate a thunder signature similar to or stronger than those of long laboratory sparks and they could also be detected by optical means. As in the case of thunderstorm assisted macro lightning, these mini-lightning flashes are also associated with straight channels. Moreover, since the frequency of mini lightning flashes are about three hundred times more frequent than the macro generated lightning flashes which were assisted by thunderstorms, they could be used as a means to look for the paths of macroscopic dark matter crossing the atmosphere.