article: A bolt of lightning has been spotted soaring from the top of a cloud before looping back on itself and striking the ground in Australia. The image was captured over Jaibru in Australia by an off-duty emergency services officer who dubbed the phenomenon 'looping lightning'. Upwards lightning is possible, but is very rare - with current estimates suggesting less than one per cent of lightning strikes travelling in an ‘upwards’ direction. And storm chaser Dan Robinson believes 'looped lightning' is simply a trick of perspective, based on where the viewer is stood, meaning it appears to rise and loop even though it is not. This image was captured over Jaibru in Australia by emergency services officer Scott Murray, who dubbed the phenomenon looping lightning'. Upwards lightning is very rare - estimates suggest less than 1% of lightning travels in an ‘upwards’ direction. But storm chaser Dan Robinson said 'looped' lighting may instead be a trick of perspective, based on where a viewer is stood, meaning it appears to loop when it's not . The 'looping lightning' image was taken by  Scott Murray and the bolt appears to shot out and up from the cloud before curving towards the Earth. Typically lightning is seen from a distance, or from the side, and it is rare to capture an image almost directly beneath a bolt. As a result, this can skew its perspective. In particular, if the bolt is travelling straight at the viewer - so they are almost looking up the length of the bolt -  it can make it appear as if it is curving because of its forked nature. There have been examples of lightning appearing to make complete circular loops, but this is also a trick of the eye. Lightning is caused by the build up of electrostatic charge in clouds. As they develop, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud, and between the cloud and the ground. Upwards lightning is normally caused by a preceding flash moving from the cloud to Earth, and involves a bolt moving from the ground to the clouds. The preceding flash causes an electrical field change, which allows an upward positive leader to originate from a tall object like a building or wind turbine. During winter snow storms, it is possible for tall objects to initiate upwards lightning without preceding flashes. Upwards lightning is very rare - estimates suggest less than one per cent of lightning travels in an ‘upwards’ direction. It is typically classified into three groups. The smallest are starters, which extend up to a  altitude of 12 to 19 miles (20 to 30km). Next are jets, which extend 25 to 31 miles (40 to 50km), and the last are gigantic jets, which reach 44 to 56 miles (70 to 90km). Positive charge builds up in one area of the cloud, while negative charges build up in the other - typically the top and bottom of the cloud respectively. If this build up of charge reaches a certain level, the insulating capacity of the air breaks causing the negative charges to escape or 'leap' from the cloud either onto another another cloud - known as sheet lightning - or to the ground. As negative charges gather in the bottom of a cloud, the negative charges in the ground are forced from the surface, leaving it positive. When a so-called 'streamer' of negative charges leaps from the bottom of the cloud, it is therefore attracted to the ground, which in turn emits a streamer of positive charges from the ground up. In particular, the negative 'stepped leaders' fork downwards looking for the best conductive path to Earth, with the least resistance. This is why these stepped leaders typically travel straight down from the cloud. As the streams connect it causes electrons to jump, or 'return the stroke', and an electrical current begins flowing, which creates lightning. This flash temporarily equalises the charged regions, until the opposite charges build up again. Lightning can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud, known as intra-cloud lightning, or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground, referred to as cloud-to-ground lightning. And there are roughly five to 10 times as many cloud flashes as there are cloud-to-ground flashes. Within these strikes are two types of ground flashes known as natural and triggered. The latter includes strikes to very tall structures, planes, rockets and towers and goes from the ground up to the cloud. Natural lightning is cloud to ground. Upwards lightning is normally caused by a preceding flash moving from the cloud to Earth, and involves a bolt moving from the ground to the clouds. The preceding flash causes an electrical field change, which allows an upward positive leader to originate from a tall object. Upwards lightning is very rare - estimates suggest less than one per cent of lightning travels in an ‘upwards’ direction - and it is typically classified into three groups, based on peak altitude. The smallest are starters, which extend up to a maximum altitude of 12 to 19 miles (20 to 30km). Next are jets, which extend 25 to 31 miles (40 to 50km), and the last are gigantic jets, which reach 44 to 56 miles (70 to 90km). Lightning is caused by a build up of electrostatic charges. As they develop, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud, and between the cloud and the ground. If this build up reaches a certain level, the insulating capacity of the air breaks. The negative charge 'leaps' from the cloud either onto another another cloud - known as sheet lightning - or to the ground (pictured) When a so-called 'streamer' of negative charges leaps from the bottom of the cloud, it is attracted to the ground, which in turn emits a streamer of positive charges from the ground up. In particular, the negative 'stepped leaders' fork downwards looking for the best conductive path to Earth, with the least resistance. This is why these stepped leaders typically travel straight down from the cloud (pictured) However, the upward movement of the lightning in Mr Murray's image doesn't appear to extend as high as other forms of upward lightning, and storm chaser Dan Robinson suggests an alternative. He explained: 'Sometimes a lightning channel will have the illusion of 'looping back' on itself or having bright knots in it. The reason behind this phenomenon is quite simple. 'Lightning is three-dimensional - it 'zigs' and 'zags' in all directions. As the streams connect, it causes electrons to jump, or 'return the stroke', and an electrical current begins flowing, which creates lightning. This flash temporarily equalises the charged regions, until the opposite charges build up again. Upwards lightning is normally caused by a preceding flash moving from the cloud to Earth, and involves a bolt moving from the ground to the clouds . Upward lightning is typically classified into three groups. Starters extend up to an altitude of 19 miles (30km), jets extend to 31 miles (50km), and the gigantic jets reach up to 56 miles (90km). The upward movement in Mr Murray's image doesn't appear to extend this high, however, and storm chaser Dan Robinson said if part of a bolt is coming straight at you, it will appear to loop back on itself even when it's not . 'Most of the time you'll view a lightning channel from the side and it'll appear to travel in one general direction only. 'However, if that lightning bolt - or part of the lightning bolt - is coming straight at you, that is, you are looking at it from one end. It will appear to loop back on itself, sometimes even appearing go back upwards. 'The bright knots in a lightning channel you sometimes see in lightning photographs are the result of the same phenomenon - they are just smaller, tighter 'loops'. It appears brighter because there is more than one section of lightning channel 'overlapping' in the camera's frame.' The Met Office's lightning expert Sven-Erik Enno told MailOnline: 'On the particular photo it seems that the upper part of the channel may be pointed towards the observer. 'In such perspective the upward movement of the horizontal channel may be more amplified - the approaching horizontal channel seems to rise higher in the sky as approaching plane seems to rise higher above the horizon although its real altitude does not change.' The map above shows the average yearly counts of lightning flashes per square kilometer from 1995 to 2013. Areas with the fewest number of flashes each year are grey and purple; areas with the largest number of lightning flashes - as many as 150 per year per square kilometer (0.4 square miles) - are bright pink. The Democratic Republic of Congo was found to have the most over the period .
highlights: Image was taken by emergency services officer Scott Murray who dubbed the phenomenon 'looping lightning'
  A bolt of lightning is shown leaving the top of the cloud before looping back towards the Earth .
  Lightning is caused when positive and negative charges build up in a cloud to a level where one leaps to the other .
  As a result lightning has been seen striking the ground from a cloud and vice versa, and can move between clouds .
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