"Gigantic Jets" Blast Electricity Into the Ionosphere 168
Posted
by
kdawson
from the more-things-in-heaven-and-earth dept.
from the more-things-in-heaven-and-earth dept.
New Scientist has an update on the so-called "gigantic jets" first discovered in 2003 — these are lightning bolts that reach from cloud tops upward into the ionosphere, as high as 90 kilometers. (There's a video at the link.) What's new is that researchers from Duke University have managed to measure the electrical discharge from a gigantic jet and confirm that they carry as much energy skyward as ordinary lightning strikes carry to the ground. According to the article, "Gigantic jets are one of a host of new atmospheric phenomena discovered in recent years. Other examples are sprites and blue jets."
Re:Sprites (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Error? (Score:1, Informative)
A Coulomb is a heck of a lot of current, and a bolt of a lightning happens in a heck of a short time. The number's about right for a *large* bolt.
Re:Question (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sprites (Score:5, Informative)
As I mention here [dumbscientist.com], the solar wind is electrically neutral. The Sun isn't "electric." It's a giant ball of fusing hydrogen and helium, and the solar wind is primarily thermally-driven (with exceptions due to solar flares, etc.)
You're not flamebait, just confused or seriously lacking in graduate physics education. The Electric Universe idea has been disproven for many years. It's fair to say that it isn't science, but rather a conspiracy theory promoted by people who don't understand [bautforum.com] physics (or science) very well.
In addition to my critique, Tim Thompson has rebutted the electric sun idea in depth, and W.T. Bridgman examines the idea in detail on his site "Dealing with Creationism in Astronomy." Unfortunately, my internet connection is screwed up so I can't provide direct links to these articles at the moment.
Re:Error? (Score:2, Informative)
1 Coulomb is a charge, not a current. Not a terribly big charge either. A "gold cap" 1F capacitor charged to 1V holds 1C. Discharging 1C at an extreme voltage in a very short time, now that's impressive.
Re:Error? (Score:1, Informative)
A Coulomb is a heck of a lot of charge, and a bolt of a lightning happens in a heck of a short time. The number's about right for a *large* bolt.
FTFY.
Re:Sprites (Score:5, Informative)
After rebooting the router, I can give you W.T. Bridgman's review [mac.com] of "The Electric Sky" and Tim Thompson's review of the electric sun [tim-thompson.com] idea, and a follow-up [tim-thompson.com].
Re:Sprites (Score:3, Informative)
After rebooting the router, I can give you W.T. Bridgman's review [mac.com] of "The Electric Sky" and Tim Thompson's review of the electric sun [tim-thompson.com] idea, and a follow-up [tim-thompson.com].
Re:HAARP (Score:4, Informative)
Okay, that was an interesting description. You might note that any US auroral research is best performed in Alaska more for reasons of auroral proximity than prying eyes -- and there are a number of US citizens in Alaska, anyway.
But, while I find myself unable to share your paranoia (the ability for humans to perceive false correlation with such things is legendary -- ask the 1000s of hams whose neighbors suddenly "start" suffering TV interference when they see a new tower put up), that is a very interesting facility -- 3.6MW of RF is nothing to sneeze at, and pumping the ionosphere with HF to transmit ELF is damn cool. Thanks for the info, and here's a link [alaska.edu] for others who may be interested.
73 de ab9ul
Re:I can recall (Score:2, Informative)
Most videos of "something moving/leaving" in relation to the earth taken by astronauts/NASA are due to random crap (speck of dust sized crap) floating by the window only a couple of inches away from the window. Optically it looks much further away due to the parallax effect not working properly because your eyes/brain aren't used to being able to see 60+ miles without there being a tree/cloud in the way and also due to the curvature of the earth. There are tons of stories of astronauts tapping on the glass of the spaceshuttle to get the dust floating an inch or two away from the glass and then calling over a fellow astronaut and claiming a huge fleet of asteroids is about to hit the earth, or alien invaders surrounding the planet, etc. It's just an optical illusion involving space dust.
Re:Question (Score:3, Informative)
Only xhtml has the "/" in the <br> tag