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MATTHEW FORDAHL, Associated Press WriterFriday, February 7, 2003 ©2003 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/02/07/state1114EST0040.DTL (02-07) 08:14 PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal scientists are investigating whether electricity or some other little-understood phenomena in the upper atmosphere might have doomed the space shuttle Columbia. Investigators also are reviewing data recorded by a network of instruments that might have detected a faint thunderclap at the same time a purplish bolt of lightning may have struck the shuttle high above Earth, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Researchers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center raised concerns in a report last year that electromagnetic phenomena or ice...

<p>Federal scientists are looking for evidence that a bolt of electricity in the upper atmosphere might have doomed the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked over California, The Chronicle has learned.</p> <p>Investigators are combing records from a network of ultra-sensitive instruments that might have detected a faint thunderclap in the upper atmosphere at the same time a photograph taken by a San Francisco astronomer appears to show a purplish bolt of lightning striking the shuttle.</p>