JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Photos, news stories, experiences, whatever involves lightning events. Here are links to two previous Sciences forum threads on the topic for starters ...
Lightning Strikes Up
The telescopes at Maunakea sit calmly beneath a sky filled with extraordinary light. Amongst these telescopes is Gemini North, the northern member of the International Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Gemini North sits at an altitude of around 4200 meters (13,800 feet). Not only does this altitude facilitate world-class astronomical observations, but Gemini North’s nighttime Cloud Cams were able to capture the extraordinary light phenomena seen on the right side of the image.
The column of blue and red lights surrounded by a bright blaze of white light appears so otherworldly that it looks like it must be a special effect. This breathtaking image, however, is entirely real. It features two lightning phenomena: a red sprite and a blue jet.
Red sprites and blue jets are distinctive because of their colors, and also the direction in which they strike. As you can see in this image, the red and blue lights are shooting up from the top of the cloud deck, and are striking out towards space, instead of down towards the Earth. It is extremely rare to capture these phenomena on camera and even more so from this unique perspective.
Credit:
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/A. Smith
Video catches split second before intense lightning strike
By Nicoletta Lanese
First Published 3 weeks ago
Caught on high-speed video, lightning streamers of opposite polarity approach and connect in this sequence of video frames, slowed by more than 10,000-fold. The common streamer zone appears in the last two frames before the whiteout of the lightning flash. This lasted about 0.00003 seconds at full speed. (Image credit: Jiang et al/Geophysical Research Letters/AGU)
Electrifying video footage has captured the moment just before lightning strikes, when thin tendrils of electricity reach down from the sky and up from the ground, until they collide with a dramatic flash.
Using a high-speed camera, researchers captured images of lightning as it struck a 1,066-foot-tall (325 meters) meteorology tower in Beijing. Two consecutive frames, each lasting 2.63 microseconds, show the moment when the downward-reaching and upward-reaching fingers of the lightning bolt suddenly touch, releasing a massive electrical discharge and a bright flash of light. ...
Read more at: Video catches split second before intense lightning strike | Live Science
atmospheric chemistry, cloud seeding, atmospheric electricity and lightning |
I reckon your post fits quite nicely within my "whatever involves lightning events" original condition for this thread. Predictions & simulations are just as important (and just as cool ) as observations for appreciating the topic. Thanks!This is not supposed to be a scientific post, but it is interesting nonetheless. ...
I was hoping for something showing some connection between prime numbers/cyclic groups and lightning, like a fellow said yesterday, but that video makes me wonder if lightning follows a definite path for some reason. There must be an explanation.I reckon your post fits quite nicely within my "whatever involves lightning events" original condition for this thread. Predictions & simulations are just as important (and just as cool ) as observations for appreciating the topic. Thanks!
"The path of least resistance" is strongly indicated as the "reason" for lightning discharge paths, based on a large body of human observations over centuries & practical engineering methods to divert those paths (the latter being a part of my former professional career). That leaves theoreticians to ponder methods for modeling the physics to match the observations, which could benefit us all. At least you've chosen the fun part vs. the potentially dangerous part.I was hoping for something showing some connection between prime numbers/cyclic groups and lightning, like a fellow said yesterday, but that video makes me wonder if lightning follows a definite path for some reason. There must be an explanation.
Local humidity, distance to the next high ionization zone, zones with high particulate matter are a few of the determining factors for preferred conduction paths no matter their geometric orientation.Maybe moisture in the atmosphere causes horizontal trajectories? ...