Optical search for lightning on Neptune

Abstract

A search for optical flashes has been conducted to verify the hypothesized identification of whistlers detected by Voyager 2 on Neptune with lightning events. A set of 98 of the best Voyager 2 images of the nightside of Neptune have been processed and searched for optical flashes; no lightning storms were found, despite the image ranges' being as short as those which showed intense lightning storms on Jupiter, and the coverage of the planet by the images being of the order of 94 percent of the surface. Either Neptune's lightning is less visible than that of Jupiter, or it is only one-fourth as frequent.