Early evidence shows there is nothing at all special about thunderstorms whose cloud-to-cloud lightning bolts produce flashes of gamma rays, according to research led by scientists at UAH. "These TGFs (terrestrial gamma-ray flashes) can come from any storm," said Dr. Themis Chronis, the study's lead author and a research associate in UAH's Earth System Science Center. "We saw one TGF come from a weak cloud that no one would have paid any attention to at all. This is our best look yet at TGFs, and it shows convincingly that storm intensity is not the key."