In reply to H Veeder's message of Sat, 14 Sep 2013 00:19:44 -0400: Hi, [snip] >the wiki page on lightning says the temperature of lightning (about 50 000 >K) is too low for existing theory to explain the production of x-rays. >
Temperature is an average. During the initial phase of a lightning bolt, the voltages are very high (before the plasma shorts out the source). These high voltages can accelerate particles to high energies. More than enough to generate x-rays. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
