Saturday, May 28, 2016

Lightning in very slow motion


Prof. Ningyu Liu, from NASA'S Geospace Physics Laboratory in Florida, recently filmed lightning using a special camera running at 7,000 frames per second.  Played back at 700 frames per second, the results are mesmerizing. Watch in full-screen mode for best results.





I'd love to see different types of lightning filmed like that - not just forked or chain lightning, but sheet and ball as well.  It gives a whole new perspective on the subject.

Peter

5 comments:

  1. AAAHHHHAAAAA!!!! I had always heard that lightening came out of the ground and met the lightening coming from the cloud. Tain't so according to that video.
    Steve

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  2. Actually there is positive and negative lightning.

    See, for instance: http://wxbrad.com/positive-lightning-why-its-so-dangerous/

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  3. Is it just me or is that actually playing at about 2-3fps w/frameskip? My browser makes YT stutter sometimes so trying to figure out if it's that or if the video has completely missed the point of slow-motion capture.

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  4. Fascinating watching the leader come down from the clouds so slowly then the main bolt returning in less that a frame.

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  5. Some years ago I stumbled onto the Discovery channel in a hotel while traveling and saw part of "Raging Planet: Lightning" -- I called home to have my wife DVR the whole episode, and the whole thing is amazing, including the first imaging of so-called "sprites" that form over thunderheads (which have now been imaged from the space station).

    You can see the Discovery episode here.

    And sprites from ISS.

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