Lightning Captured at 7207 Images per Second
Explanation:
How fast is lightning?
Lightning, in fact, moves not
only too fast for humans to see, but so fast that humans can't even tell which direction
it is moving.
The above
lightning stroke did not move too fast, however, for
this extremely high time resolution video
to resolve.
Tracking at an incredible 7,207 frames per second, actual time can be seen progressing
at the video bottom.
The above
lightning bolt starts with many simultaneously
creating ionized channels branching out from an negatively charged pool of
electrons and
ions that has somehow been created
by
drafts and collisions in a
rain cloud.
About 0.015 seconds after appearing -- which takes about 3 seconds in the above time-lapse
video --
one of the meandering charge leaders makes
contact
with a suddenly appearing positive spike moving up from the ground and an ionized
channel of air is created that instantly acts like a wire.
Immediately afterwards, this hot channel pulses with a tremendous amount of charges
shooting back and forth between the cloud and the ground, creating a
dangerous
explosion that is later
heard as
thunder.
Much remains unknown about
lightning,
however, including details of the
mechanism
that separates charges.
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
