Radio atmospheric a distance where luminosity is visible and thunder can be heard (typically about 10 km), these electromagnetic impulses are the only sources of direct information about thunderstorm activity on the ground. Transients electric currents during return strokes (R strokes) or intracloud strokes (K strokes) are the main sources for the generation of impulse-type electromagnetic radiation known as sferics (sometimes called atmospherics). While this impulsive radiation dominates at frequencies less than about 100 kHz, (loosely called long waves), a continuous noise component becomes increasingly important at higher frequencies. The longwave electromagnetic propagation of sferics takes place within the Earth-ionosphere waveguide between
Atmospheric escape brighter than it is now, making it hot enough for Earth to lose enough hydrogen to space to cause it to lose all of its water (See Future of Earth#Loss of oceans). Atmospheric escape Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space. A number of different mechanisms can be responsible for atmospheric escape, operating at different time scales; the most prominent is Jeans Escape, named after British astronomer Sir James Jeans, who described the process of atmospheric loss to the molecular kinetic energy. The relative importance of each loss process is a function of the planet's