Earth and Mineral Sciences Weather phenomenon that eluded scientists for decades captured in nature as corona discharges glow on tips of leaves The positive, left, and negative corona discharges are shown on a spruce branch in a nearly pitch-black environment of a meteorology and atmospheric sciences lab at Penn State.   Credit: William Brune / Penn State. Creative Commons UNIVERSITY PARK — In a converted 2013 Toyota Sienna affixed with a hand-built telescopic weather device protruding from the roof, Penn State experts in meteorology and atmospheric science made their way down the nation’s eastern coast in June 2024 in search of Florida’s famed near-daily summer thunderstorms. They were hoping to catch corona discharges, a long-hypothesized atmospheric weather phenomenon where miniscule pulses of electricity dance at the tips of tree leaves, causing the canopy to glow in the ultraviolet (UV).…