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ScaredForTheFuture
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 162
Location: Orange County, CA,USA |
New lightening discovered.. but ozone & frequency related
 Thu Jun 26, 2003 10:49 pm
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Scientists Observe Unknown Lightning Type
Jun 25, 1:05 PM (ET)
By WILLIAM McCALL
Scientists have discovered a startling secret in the sky: gigantic jets of lightning that shoot upward from cloud tops to nearly 60 miles into the upper atmosphere.
Unlike the familiar lightning bolts, these brilliant jets spread out in extremely thin air to form shapes resembling giant trees or carrots some 50 miles tall, according to a study by researchers in Taiwan.
"These things are so spectacular, and so startling, and we're just finding it this late in the game," said Walt Lyons of FMA Research in Fort Collins, Colo., an atmospheric scientist who specializes in lightning research.
"It's sort of like biologists announcing we've discovered a new human body part," Lyons said. "We thought we knew everything that was up there and, lo and behold, we don't."
The study, led by Han-Tzong Su of the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, used low-light cameras on the southern tip of the island to capture images of five gigantic lightning jets streaming upward from thunder clouds over the South China Sea in July 2002.
The enormous jets typically disappear in less than a second and are very difficult to see with the naked eye, researchers said.
The study, which appears Thursday in the journal Nature, also found that four jets generated extremely low frequency radio waves that could interfere with global radio communications, said Victor Pasko, a Penn State electrical engineer.
"So we know now that these kinds of events can produce some perturbation in those radio signals," said Pasko, who wrote a Nature commentary on the study.
In the 1990s, Pasko documented another form of lightning, blue jets, that also stream upward but do not reach as high or spread out as far as the jets reported in the new study.
Still another form of high-altitude lightning, called sprites, were discovered in 1989. Unlike the newly reported jets, sprites travel downward toward clouds and do not stretch as far, averaging about 25 to 30 miles before they dissipate far above the cloud tops, according to Umran Inan of Stanford University, who was not part of the latest study.
"Unlike sprites, these lightning jets the Taiwan group observed are more intense and show a clear connectivity between thunder clouds and the far upper atmosphere," Inan said.
Scientists had found plenty of evidence of sprites in the 1990s, but the larger, upward streaming lightning jets had escaped detection - possibly because they may only occur over oceans, Inan said.
The various forms of high-altitude lightning are not expected to pose any danger to aircraft because they spread out over such a wide area of the upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere, researchers said. Since space shuttles travel through the ionosphere, Lyons said NASA might do well to study these phenomena, although they probably pose little threat to spacecraft.
While no studies have been done to see if the various forms of high-altitude lightning affect the chemistry of the upper atmosphere, scientists suspect they may play a role in ozone formation.
Researchers said the discovery of the new form of high-altitude lightning jets will change computer models of the atmosphere. It also may help military satellites avoid confusing manmade explosions with natural phenomena.
"There are issues like, are certain sensors in space being fooled by this?" Lyons said.
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:19 am
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couldn't view it...was that the "bubble" gust thing from the may 9th tornado ? |
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Lulu
Joined: 22 Dec 2000
Posts: 2501
Location: right here |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:31 am
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It is a cool clip on weird bursts of super fast bolts of light that flash out of tornadoes. A rather unique phenomenon indeed! |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 7:49 am
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that's for the most part my hometown rag...and you can see it and I can't !
bah humbug
wait til more comes out about the bubble burst thing...wow..lock up your daughter...lock up your wife...run for the back door run for your life ! |
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Feelin Kocky
Joined: 07 Jan 2003
Posts: 537
Location: Underground Weather Control Bunker |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 12:17 pm
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I've got another video of this phenomena at my office, I might be able to send you. Will get back. I think the online version require real player. Maybe that's why you couldn't view it?
>>was that the "bubble" gust thing from the may 9th tornado ?<<
no, something quite different.
F.K. |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 3:09 pm
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KWTV sent a copy of the security tape to NOAA (bubble thing)...you gotta see that !
and I don't do real player....damn thing just comes in and takes over you media files...been clean for almost a year now....
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Feelin Kocky
Joined: 07 Jan 2003
Posts: 537
Location: Underground Weather Control Bunker |
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Fri Jun 27, 2003 10:54 pm
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Yes real player does that. I did a very careful custom install and it has not taken over.....yet.
I wonder how to get a tape of that bubble thing. I will try one of my contacts. Do you have any links to articles regarding the bubble thing?
F.K. |
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msu94
Joined: 16 Feb 2002
Posts: 207
Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:16 am
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You can also get lighting from clouds of volcanic ash |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 2:55 am
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this may be it, I can't view it...
the bubble as I refer to it was caught on a security camera...
http://newsok.com/?weather# |
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Lulu
Joined: 22 Dec 2000
Posts: 2501
Location: right here |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 4:16 am
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WOW!!! Looks like a giant golf ball. Tres cool seeker! |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 4:39 am
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I'd really like to understand the circumstances that produce this type event...
freakin' weird eh !
I'm resisting the urge to download the stupid un-real player....
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Lulu
Joined: 22 Dec 2000
Posts: 2501
Location: right here |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 4:41 am
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Two words:
DO IT |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 4:48 am
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thinking about it...now if david would have said that it would be like this...
"two words"
"do it now"
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Lulu
Joined: 22 Dec 2000
Posts: 2501
Location: right here |
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Sat Jun 28, 2003 4:51 am
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LOL
Are you reading this David? |
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