Lightning strikes linked with pollution in the US

New research conducted in the US has revealed that lightning strikes most in the middle of the week during the summer season.

Conducted by NASA's space flight centre in Maryland, the study discovered a link between air pollution peaks and lightning incidences in America's south, reported the Discover Channel's website.

A particular area of concern was cited as aerosol use and as Dong Wu of the California Institute of Technology highlighted, "people have been debating about the effects of aerosols on weather for the last five years".

He added that the climate is set to "warm significantly in the next 50 to 100 years and that "we want to know what role aerosols play in this; is it a warming effect, cooling, or neutral? It's a hard problem".

The research further discovered that there are 10 to 20 more incidents of lightning on Wednesday and Thursday in the summer than at weekends.

In other air quality developments, Turkey recently called for stricter air quality monitoring after it revealed pollution has become worse across the country in recent years.