When Lightning Strikes (2012 Refresher) 12m
Aug 8, 2013
National Interagency Fire Center
Aug 8, 2013
National Interagency Fire Center
1:38 they heard distant thunder but the sky overhead was blue. 3:18 direct strike are 3-5% of lightning fatalities, 3:29 upward leaders 10-15% of fatalities, 3:35 contact strike 15-25% fatalities, 3:40 side flash 10-20% fatalities, ground current 40-50% of fatalities, the most dangerous leading cause of death/injuries. all the voltage goes into the ground. 5:18 the strike hits trees above, then traveled through trenches in ground. 5:43 natl average is 40 fatalities 400 injuries. 7:07 safer areas: depressions, dry raveens, vehicle roll up windows and touch nothing metallic. the lightning should flash over the metal skin and into the ground. 7:52 commercial jet passengers never feel strikes. 8:15 if you feel tingling or hair stands up, you're in a very high EM field and a strike is imminent, get into lightning crouch position. 8:35 put rubber sleeping mat under you, make self into small ball. 9:07 treatment: avoid further injury to self and victim. victims dont retain a charge, you can instantly touch a victim after strike. 9:56 monitor victim for cardiovascular, respiratory or neurological collapse, some effects may not show up for some time later.
Lightning Safety 11m
Apr 17, 2008
Justin Berk
Apr 17, 2008
Justin Berk
ABC report from 1998 or 1999, but it still holds up today. This video was a primary focus for lightning safety with my students at the former Villa Julie College; was the best way I could illustrate the danger and safety with them.
1:52 as it gets closer to earth, it electrifies everything on earth, the buzzing noise aka sound of bacon frying, your hair stands on end. 2:24 jenna bernardo young athlete was playing softball under sunny blue sky when bolt lightning struck, many were knocked over, but she was hit directly in abdomen, she went into full cardiac arrest and sufffered permanent brain damage. the storm was distant, and we didnt have 'lightning monitors' that measure/detect/warn of higher static electricity in the air. 4:25 everyone sees a bright flash and maybe arching rising from the body. 4:55 one bolt radiated outward, killed one man who was holding onto a metal rail, injured 12 people, knocked over several horses as the shock moved through their metal horseshoes. 5:40 1991 in a pause of a lacrosse game, noah was killed when he leaned against a tree and 10 other injured. 6:12 florida is where lightning strikes most with 70-100 days of strikes and has 8% of victims, western states close behind. 6:50 its mostly people at play/sports. 1 in 12 victims are golfing near metal objects or hiding under trees. 7:48 make yourself as small a target as possible, crouched, hands on ears. 10:25 dont talk on phone or use appliances in a storm. stay indoors, dont touch metal objects. wait 30min after it passes to go out.
Megalightning 47m
Sep 29, 2011
HotBurmees
Sep 29, 2011
HotBurmees
Entirely new forms of lightning have been discovered up to 1000 times bigger than any bolt previously seen. While normal lightning fires down below clouds, these giant bolts shoot up, stunning experts with images of lightning 80 kilometres high.
This lightning, six times more powerful than passenger planes are designed to withstand, may be the real killer in a spate of baffling air disasters.
And for the first time we can reveal the photograph that sparked a secret NASA enquiry.
Was this the proof that a high altitude lightning strike caused the crash of the space shuttle Columbia?
Complete audio-transcript: http://vimeo.com/26110990
18:30 sprite first thought to shoot up actually fires downward, occurs faster than blink of an eye. 19:10 first you see a halo that grows into sprite if the field is great enough. 19:45 what pulls vast currents from space to make such huge towers of electrical energy? 19:58 can these explain some of the mysterious air disasters?
20:40 planes are usually unharmed by 100M volt lightning 20:54 yet strikes have killed 483 people in 5 major plane crashes in 30 years. 21:04 1963 disaster ended the myth that planes were immune to lightning. 21:30 plane flew into storm and crashed into corn field killing all 81 aboard. it was blamed on fuel tank explosion and a massive lightning strike had blown off part of a wing and burned through rivets. most then thought lightning bolted downward (negative charged bolts), we didnt know about upward lightning positive charged bolts that strike and burn. 23:24 flight 214 had likely been attacked by positive lightning. 24:00 1993 discovery of lightning above the clouds. 25:00 the whole section of sky was black, then a super bright flash across the sky, and a glider came down shattered in pieces. gliders had been struck before and survived, so how was this different? 26:25 how could we quantify the energy level in the strike, by simulating it with a model glider in a lab. the finding had ominous implications where the energy from positive lightning can burn 10x longer and unleash 6x the power than common negative strikes. 28:00 the killer lightning traveled with an even bigger accomplice. 28:00 we took pictures above the storm and discovered that for every sprite there was a positive lightning strike. 28:05 ANIMATION. positive lightning and sprites were a continuous force stretching from the beginning of space to where planes fly. regulators had set airline safety thresholds for lightning before discovery of sprites. the world's airlines fly with shielding able to withstand only 1/6th of the awesome power inflicted by positive lightning fired below the sprites. 29:00 we can now use the sprite as coalminer's canary, as neon signs warning of exceptionally unusual 'positive' lightning discharge below and the sprites above could strike an area 1000x larger. 29:25 could they hit rockets, nasa funded the first sprite hunt in 1993 to find out. what would the effect be of the shuttle flying through a sprite. 30:35 nasa took their chances on the 107th shuttle mission in 2003, no extra shielding installed, yet it would hunt for sprites among 200 other projects. 31:25 israel's 1st astronaut was to film lightning from the shuttle. the crew pursued giant lightning. 32:32 video was beamed back to houston, raw tapes of these storms were onboard, but the ship disintegrated on re-entry at 27,000 mph. 34:48 all 7 astronauts sent to hunt giant lightning were killed, initially they wondered if they were brought down by sprite.
35:38 another cameraman followed the descend. amateur astronomer dr. peter goldie was concerned by the anomaly he saw in one photo of the shuttle descent. 36:20 the shocking picture showed the reentry trail joined by what looked like a lightning bolt two seconds prior to it glowing brighter, 6min later it exploded. 36:55 as a newspaper got hold of the photo and 'killer megalightning' was about to be frontpage news, nasa dispatched an agent to confiscate all photos and the camera. sprite hunters began doing detective work to validate if sprites or other electrical effects were involved. it took 2 weeks to find the onboard tapes. 38:50 among first images made public from the sprite hunt incl a meteor re-entry apparently sparking a bolt of giant lightning. was it possible the shuttle had acted like a meteor, it's reentry trail turning columbia into a giant lightning rod? nasa blamed mismanagement and human error, maintenance/material failure.
[v: how this 107th 2003 shuttle carrying the first sprite evidence is destroyed by a sprite is truly hard to square statistically, why not any of the previous 106 missions? ]
40:00 experts who checked the SF photo concluded the image of lightning was likely caused by camera artifact. 40:35 but the man who'd been america's lookout for rogue atomic tests had heard something very real in the re-entry path of the doomed space shuttle. while nasa was concluding 'no strike' new evidence emerged.
41:20 dr. alfred bettard infrasonic array was listening when the shuttle went down, we knew we had detected past re-entries, and he heard a sinister sound before the shuttle's breakup. 42:20 what you hear are the bursts of energy then a hollow thud like the sound of a distant gunshot, indicating an energy burst outside the shuttle before disintegration, evidence external forces at play. 43:10 the bomb detector heard the sound of a quake/sprite mix and measured the force of an earthquake high in the sky, its epicenter in the flight path of doomed shuttle. 43:52 could columbia have triggered an unknown weather phenomenon? 44:00 nasa alaskan researchers 1994 found more aggressive 'blue jet' upward-firing bolts 5x longer than typical. 45:10 months before the shuttle crash, off taiwan's coast enormous brilliant blue bolts erupted 80km to the ionosphere, seen with naked eye, far more energetic form of old 'blue jets'. 46:00 only 5 gigantic jets have been captured on camera and their killing potential remains unknown. its a zoo of unknown discoveries to be studied and to design aircraft for. 46:25 middle atmosphere phenomena really need to be studied for manned and unmanned space travel.
Naked Science - Lightning 50m
Dec 5, 2018
Naked Science
Dec 5, 2018
Naked Science
Subscribe to Naked Science – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1
Six times hotter than the surface of the sun, lightning is one of the world's strangest phenomena. This film follows the progress of a lightning stroke, from its birth in the clouds, to the weird sounds called whistlers that follow it.
In Australia we follow lightning researchers flying into storm clouds, to discover what triggers a lightning stroke. At the International Lightning Center in Florida we find new research that suggests that cosmic rays from outer space trigger lightning. We meet a golfer struck by lightning, and reveal what happens when you're hit. Why do some people survive, when others don't?
One of the weirdest forms of lightning is ball lightning, but is it real, or a myth? We talk to people who have seen it. And we see stunning footage of sprites and other forms of lightning that go up from clouds towards space, and see them recreated in a laboratory.
giant sparks of static electricity tear through atmosphere at 60M mph, the air inside heats up to 50,000F expands so quickly it explodes with a clap. 1:30 up to 8M times everyday, one of natures most observed phenomena, yet least understood. 2:00 1 billion volts, 200,000 amps, its like a nuclear power plant. to unlock it's secrets we follow a bolt from its creation to destruction and beyond.
2:35 michael utley on a golf green is knocked out for 38 days, 5:00 the current hitches a lift on the body's electrical highway route 1; the autonomic nervous system controlling involuntary functions; breathing, digestion, heartbeat. route 2+3 blood and muscle full of electolyltes, salts, electrically conductive. both go straight to the heart. 6:30 shockwaves can fracture the skull. 6:40 lichtenburg marks 'lightning flowers' the current ruptures tiny capillaries to show its journey in skin. 6:50 same fossilized record of its path is left on the golf course.
7:35 university illinois, chicago. patient complains of xyz, mri scans look normal, but a functional mri makes a movie to see the brain in action. 9:28 [v: basketball analogy with network of nerve anions looks like what i imagine the invisible anatomy of a lightning storm could look like not just from sky to ground, but from space to middle earth]. 10:25 90% of strike victims survive. lightning technologies illustrates why by simulating a golfer in a lab, where sweat and the putter divert the bulk of the current away from vital organs.
13:40 darwin, australia experiences the world's most violent, gets 1600 strikes in a few hours. 15:29 we know the theory is x, but the reality is stranger. 16:00 air is not a good conductor, to let current through the air's atomic structure must literally break apart which takes billions of volts, and when scientists search the skies for this huge electrical charge, none has ever been found. it's a major missing piece. [v: so it has to come from space or middle earth.]
16:35 physicist joe dwyer at florida institute of tech says 'lightning is a bit embarrassing given we have studied this for 200+ years, since benjamin franklin. how does it propagate? 17:40 lightning bolts can be 120 miles long and sending a current through this much air would take millions of volts, a massive electrical charge.
18:18 at UofF intl center for lightning research, in the triggered lightning program, they launch rockets into charged storm clouds to trigger strikes they can measure/study. the rocket trails a copper wire to ground. he uses the data to see how lightning can cut through air and the answer lies in outerspace as cosmic rays. billions of them bombard the planet every day, invisible and inaudible, but momentarily rips apart the air's structure producing xrays EM waves of radiation which can be measured. could cosmic rays be missing link?
20:18 we were surprised to see big bursts of xray occurring reliably in tandem with each strike, like cosmic rays. 21:00 we thought strikes were a typical static discharge, that was wrong. it looks like a cosmic ray hits a cloud causing a huge surge in electricity, creating a charged field as the cosmic rays hits ground. 22:00 negative particles traveling downward in a strike draws positive particles in the ground upward. lightning travels up and down. 22:47 and lightning strikes happen up to 8M times a day, 100x per second. 23:00 if joe dwyer's theories are right: there may be a connection between lightning we see and a star exploding across the galaxy a million years ago. 23:23 in the moments after impact we enter a world of fireballs, UFOs and ghostly aberrations. 23:45 the twilight world following a strike. 23:50 comic: 1963 eastern air EA53, seconds after a bright flash in a storm, a bright glowing ball emerges from pilots cabin, floats through fuselage to back and vanishes. it wasnt the first account. in wwii pilots reported balls of light following their planes they called "foo fighters". for thousands of years, people claim encounters with fiery spheres, as ghosts, messages from the gods, UFOs, but there was something unique about EA53 account. the eyewitness was a scientist, professor at prestigious british university.
25:20 nuclear physicist dr. graham hubler has himself seen ball lightning. 26:55 ball lightning that falls from sky, explode, hiss, spin, hovered, jumped, travel in groups. 27:30 physicist mark stenhoff has examined all evidence/theories. one thing they all agree on, 'ball lightning is plasma' and plasma is the most common form of matter in universe: sun, fire, lightning, space bw stars. run a current through a gas and plasma emits light.
28:34 one more sensible theory is that ball lightning is produced by a rare phenomenon known as 'bead lightning' or a plasma bead that has separated from a bolt. 29:20 if not, might ball lightning be the product of a bolt? this stone is fossilized remnant of a lightning strike in sandy soil. everything in a bolt's path fuses into a solid tube called a folgerite and can stretch up to 15ft deep underground.
30:28 for now ball lightning remains a mystery, it contains energy to glow, could be a key to new energy physics technology. 31:18 the mystery of ball lightning is yet to be solved. and ball lightning isnt the only odd phenomenon moments after a strike.
31:30 even stranger: twin pillar sprites above the cloud. 31:55 1989 physicists from Uof Minnesota try out low light camera for rocket experiments. they randomly point it eastward and spot sprites nobody ever saw before (see prof cummers, duke) 33:00 twin pillars of lights flicker above distant storms. 33:22 scientists review hundreds of hours of footage from space shuttle and see dozens of these.
34:35 prof cummers with instruments so sensitive he can listen to lightning bolts anywhere on earth finds sprites occur after strongest lightning strikes and can be 40 miles high, 1-40 miles wide at bottom and top half 60 miles wide. cummers thinks huge release of energy by strikes causes disturbance in atmo above.
36:20 UofAlaska space physics hunt for sprites captured first color images of sprites 1994. 36:55 earl williams, mit, created a 'sprite in a bottle' lab to study. 37:42 by running a current through tubes and gasses in it produce colored light, most gas is nitrogen producing white light, change the pressure, you change the color. like neons signs of vegas. 50 miles up in atmosphere low pressure means nitrogen produces red light sprites, but as sprite nears earth, air pressure increases so color changes to purple then blue.
39:30 blue jets travel up 40 miles into sky not down like sprites, these are the big new mystery, nobody know what it takes to generate them. 40:10 even more rare are 'elves' a horizontal halo of light 60 miles above earth, that spreads out quickly to 250 miles, its triggered by a pulse from a bolt. 40:40 sprites, blue jets, elves, all sound benign, but what would it be like to encounter one at close range?
nasa test pilots fly safely through storms but regular bolts are only as thick as a pencil. but these monsters can be 200 miles across. aircraft operate in same altitudes as blue jets and space craft pass through same as sprites and elves.
42:55 life as we know it could depend on harnessing lightning. 43:15 1962 the 'starfish prime' nuke was detonated 250 miles above pacific inside the van allen belts (a threat to astronauts/satellites). sandwiched between the belts is a safe slot orbit. at first, the blast of radiation in the safe slot causes satellites to cease function, but a few weeks later the safe slot is restored aka radiation-free. how?
44:45 researchers realize violent solar storms pump radioactive particles into space, when these head in our direction, radiation saturates the safe slot, then it clears in the safe slot. 45:35 the evidence points to the sun, but in 2004 green notices lightning exhibits exact same characteristics as safe zone radiation clearance. and the only thing that enters into space is lightning. 46:30 but how could lightning on earth affect the safe slot 4000 miles above? a bolt also creates radio waves. tune in to a storm with an all-frequencies receivers and you'll hear eerie whistling of radio wave emission from lightning. 47:20 the radio waves are missing link that connect lightning with safe slot in space.
47:30 we never realized the importance the ground was having on space. theory: less than a second after a lightning strike on earth, the radio wave reaches the radiation belt, there it interact with electrically charge particles 'the radiation' forcing the particles out of the 'safe slot'.
48:00 we had always thought of lightning's destructive mechanism, but we're discovering many of its benefits. without lightning, radiation would fill the safe slot and all satellites would go down, global comm, nav systems, cellphones would all shut down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=3D0BRSJ5nIs
Discovery Channel - Raging Planet: Lightning VO (Fuerzas de la naturaleza: Rayos VO) - 47m
Aug 15, 2015
0:55 lightning strikes over 8 million times a day aka 100x per second. most lightning strikes discharge within the clouds, but when earth and sky connect they can deliver a trillion watts of energy, enough to power an entire city. 1:45 across the middle of florida is 'lightning alley' that counts 50 strikes per sq mile. every year people get hit, 1 out of 10 die instantly. fisherman dave was struck with no hints of a coming storm; shares evidence/story. his zipper burned/seared into his abdomen. more die by lightning than hurricanes or tornado. 4:00 equatorial africa has more strikes than anywhere else, twice that in florida. the congo basin provides perfect conditions for large electrical storms. 11:35 lightning photography is a dangerous endeavor as lightning can strike anything/anyone up to 25 miles away from a cloud. 13:00 lightning appears to strike from sky to ground, but advances in camera tech reveal complex anatomy. discovered the stepped leader zigzags downward in 50 yard segments. objects on the ground grow positive streamers that reach up to connect. 15:44 lightning slowed 200x. 18:00 scientific research has produced evidence that you can trigger strikes using rockets. 19:30 tom warner uses high speed photography to uncover hidden world showing lightning shooting upwards aka upward lightning. upward leaders initiate from two radio masts.
23:00 venezuela legendary catatumbo lightning. there, oilfields produce methane gas byproduct which contribute to equation [yet has guided sailors for centuries like a lighthouse aka predating/negating the burning of fossil fuels and industry/man]. in the last 10 years strikes, flashes/discharge have more than doubled. [lightning is a major player, may be a causal factor in climate change, predating/negating burning of fossil fuels and industry/man] 26:00 during a storm, the most dangerous place to be is in a wide open space, on any large expanse of water, and dont shelter under a tree. lightning can turn tree sap into superheated steam making the tree explode in a shower of deadly splinters. it can travel down telephone lines. if your hair stands up, you are about to become a bolt of lightning, quickly squat down on the balls of your feet. everything was overexposed, felt pressure through every inch of body, every nerve/muscle tightened, like a severe sunburn everywhere. the bulk of the energy goes around the outside of person, charge flows through the moisture on the skin to ground. it turns rainwater/sweat to steam and can have explosive effect, blow people out of their shoes. most survive, but may have permanent problems with nervous system incl memory loss and motor/mobility hurdles. it's like a computer crash. on the outside you look fine, but inside circuitry is damaged. when thunder roars, go indoors. 32:00 a closed vehicle is one of safest places to be, its the metal chassis 'faraday cage' that protects. 34:05 plane into sydney struck and nobody on board knew they were hit. 35:40 strikes cause wildfire. summer of 2008 unusually high number of lightning strikes set large areas of california ablaze. 1 storm unleashed 5000 strikes, igniting 1000+ fires. 40:25 discovered lightning sprites high in the stratosphere. first photographed in 1989. in 1997, dr. richard dowden captured them on video. in 1999, dr. jeff mccarge of usaf research academy recorded 3 types of sprites: jellyfish 30 miles tall and wide, carrot, column. 45:15 around world, 10 sprites could shoot up every minute. the only energy input on atmosphere, at night, sprites can input energy and change the atmosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4V-iexOidU
Struck By Lightning (Documentary) - 46m
19:30 lightning injury expert mary ann cooper, md. says the first hurdle is being believed, they will look fine on outside, but not feel right, the wiring/software wont be working right. neuropsych margaret primo says nervous system and blood vessels are vulnerable, current enters head through eyes/ears/nose/mouth so the current must travel through the brain even if they have no obvious head wound. using controversial QEEG, neurologist found areas of brain not working well, frontal and right temporal regions re judgement, impulse control, memory and orientation. we see a loss of veneer on the personality, the part that can reason with oneself (to not lose control, do irrational ). 21:50 the cns does not heal, the peripheral does grow back again, the spinal cord does not heal, so if lightning causes a permanent injury in brain it will not heal. in the future medicine may offer relief for brain injuries by lightning. 22:45 every second, 100 flashes of lighting strike the earth. the chances of being struck by one are 1 in 500,000. it happened to one woman 3x. 22:55 1983 linda cooper ran an errand to get stamps at post office in light showers after the morning storms, it struck the flag pole and jumped to her head. since then she has had chronic fatigue, memory loss, stabbing headaches. after that never did dishes/laundry etc. during storms, but was on the phone when another strike zapped her, her pain/fatigue lasted only a few months this time. she moved to NC. she knew not to work with any electric appliances, but making jello, she washed out the container when a bolt cracked and ran through her hands/arms on the faucets.
27:30 [v: not random. someone struck more than once when ratio is 1 in 500k is obviously a magnet moreso than others, coincidence theory is simply irrational, we just dont know what the magnetic attraction is yet. spontaneous combustion burns people quickly inside out consumes them in minutes and falls into same family ex. 'stealth' ball lightning]. 28:00 lightning strike and electric shock victims intl 1989. many were struck while golfing. 31:30 photographer felt odd 'vacuum tube' sensation in the air, arm hair stood up, he wanted to run for shelter but was immobile/stuck/frozen, heard a quick sizzle like meat on grill followed by flash of light, felt peaceful calm and heavenly. 35:30 as lightning is looking to ground, it seeks in a 30 yard radius for something to hit, when poles, and hair standing on end are all reaching up to it. 37:20 most survivors suffer serious medical issues, but some claim to have been healed. betty galvano, in kitchen when kitchen lit up, then felt like millions of needles in her foot, leg was numb from knee down, likely came up through the dishwasher. lightning shocked her and a few back to health incl giving eye sight to the blind. 42:30 triggered lightning program, bait rockets with wires fired into sky. 45:10 one of nature's most unexplainable powers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtlWQ-scn48AAPLS09 "Weird Lightning" by J. Dwyer (2011 Sept 23) - 47m
Department of Physics & Space Sciences 2011
13:30 scary: not a cloud in the sky, bolt from the blue, reaches 25 miles from distant storm. wait 30min after blue sky returns before going outside again. stay away from trees. if outside and hear sizzle hiss static and feel hair standing up, crouch down on tip toes. 22:10 superbolts: 1 in a million bolts are 100x more powerful than normal lightning. 23:30 sympathetic L: lightning chains aka chain reaction across vast distances. lightning initiation is a mystery, sympathetic lightning may be a clue. 22:50 volcanic L: 29:30 CIDs/NBE narrow bipolar events aka stealth rf lightning solo event. most powerful rf emission on planet for millisecond. 30:30 ball L: lasts 1-60 seconds, size orange to bowling ball, disappears silently or explosively, moves at walking speed. 33:50 TGF terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. thunderstorms make antimatter positrons. 39:00 rocket-triggered lightning studies. 41:20 xrays. amount of a typical xray. 45:30 all the wierd stuff happens together, one triggers the others, like a symphony.
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