High-Speed Video Captures Lightning
25/02/2009 00:00
New high-speed video
cameras are helping reveal the structure of
lightning, allowing scientists to study these
deadly bolts of electricity in much greater
detail than ever before.
The cameras are showing images of lightning that have otherwise been invisible to the naked eye and have never been captured on traditional film or video cameras.
Just as photography first revealed how horses' legs actually function while at a full gallop, so too does this new technology allow us to see how lightning strikes actually work.
"The high-speed video recording systems are providing an entirely new dimension in our understanding of lightning — namely, time, with enough resolution to see entirely new processes in the spatial development of intracloud and cloud-to-ground flashes," says E. Philip Krider, an atmospheric scientist and lightning expert at the University of Arizona, in an e-mail.
Says Tom Warner, a meteorologist with ZT Research in South Dakota, who studies high-speed videos of lightning: "There are components of lightning that we could not see optically before. The beautiful thing about high-speed cameras is that they show us the lightning progression image by image, which is what the human mind is used to seeing, and therefore make it much easier to visualize and understand."
More photos here.
SINC SAYS:
There are some pretty impressive pictures here folks. Take a look at them all.