Atmospheric 'sprites' Captured In Explosive Detail |
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Atmospheric 'sprites' Captured In Explosive Detail |
 Feb 17 2006, 03:40 AM
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 Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110  |
Mysterious flashes of light called “sprites", that occur above thunderclouds during powerful storms, have been captured on film in unprecedented detail by researchers using an ultra-high-speed camera.
The best images yet of the flashes – which resemble a giant undulating jellyfish with its tentacles falling from a halo of light – have allowed the team to pick apart their structure and mechanics. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8733 Includes an impressive video clip. |
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Feb 17 2006, 11:52 AM
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#2
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (alan @ Feb 17 2006, 03:40 AM)  Mysterious flashes of light called “sprites", that occur above thunderclouds during powerful storms, have been captured on film in unprecedented detail by researchers using an ultra-high-speed camera. The best images yet of the flashes – which resemble a giant undulating jellyfish with its tentacles falling from a halo of light – have allowed the team to pick apart their structure and mechanics. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8733 Includes an impressive video clip. Aiiii! Cthulhu! See, I told you! (aaargh) Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 17 2006, 12:51 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 129 Joined: 25-March 05 Member No.: 218 |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Feb 17 2006, 06:52 AM) Aiiii! Cthulhu! See, I told you! (aaargh) Bob Shaw Cthulhu? You mean FSM. The vid shows us touched by his noodly appendage. |
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Feb 17 2006, 01:23 PM
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#4
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Aaarrrr, yes! Now, just let me adjust my pirate regalia...
-the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Feb 17 2006, 01:32 PM
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#5
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Is that video upsidedown? I thought Sprites were the things they'd seen from orbit that go upwards?
D |
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Feb 17 2006, 01:51 PM
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#6
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 562 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 221 |
i still think this would make a good subject of study for a cubesat
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Feb 17 2006, 02:15 PM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (RedSky @ Feb 17 2006, 12:51 PM) Cthulhu? You mean FSM. The vid shows us touched by his noodly appendage. Heretic! You'll be eaten *first*! Hahahaha. Bob Shaw PS Er, sounds like something for a CubeSat, I agree. Let's build one! -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 17 2006, 02:32 PM
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#8
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Other references on sprites:
http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/skeets.html http://luna.tau.ac.il/~peter/MEIDEX/Public...r6/icae2003.pdf http://geology.about.com/cs/sprites_and_more/a/aa121403a.htm -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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| Guest_paulanderson_* |
Feb 23 2006, 07:47 PM
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#9
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Guests |
I'm glad these sprites are being so well documented now; I remember when pilots used to be ridiculed for reporting them. There's a lesson here - just because a previously unknown phenomenon or finding is seemingly very unusual or strange does not mean it should be dismissed out of hand, which still happens too often and just slows down the scientific process of discovery, rather than furthering it.
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