Lightning Thread
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JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
From: The National Science Foundation's NOIRLab
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
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
From: Live Science
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
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Bernie built a lightning detector.
His brother is the well known author Kurt. He mentioned Bernie in Cat's Cradle and a few other works.
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Bernard Vonnegut - Wikipedia
His brother is the well known author Kurt. He mentioned Bernie in Cat's Cradle and a few other works.
| atmospheric chemistry, cloud seeding, atmospheric electricity and lightning |
Bernard Vonnegut - Wikipedia
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
A very timely ground observation from the San Jose, CA area on April 3, 2024. The video imaging details include some rarely seen lightning behaviors ...
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Image (with blow-ups, in a manner of speaking) captured by Dan Martland on 3 April 2024 during an NYC area storm. Background story from Yahoo!News/USA Today here. Somebody needs to tell all media types that "lightning" and "lightening" are NOT interchangeable ... 
Hippasus
1,9,45,165,495,1287,
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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!
Hippasus
1,9,45,165,495,1287,
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
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
"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.
Hippasus
1,9,45,165,495,1287,
Maybe moisture in the atmosphere causes horizontal trajectories?
There are also, rarely, upward bolts of lightning, called gigantic jets, that can be dangerous.
There are also, rarely, upward bolts of lightning, called gigantic jets, that can be dangerous.
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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.
