'Dark lightning' sparks call for more Earth-gazing satellites

[BlueGin]

More Earth-gazing satellites are needed to better understand the phenomenon of so-called dark lightning, according to researchers speaking at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna.

Dark lightning is invisible to the naked eye, but in certain, extremely rare conditions could produce gamma-ray radiation in an airplane equivalent to a few chest X-rays or a full-body CT scan, the researchers said, though they emphasized that the phenomenon does not appear to be dangerous to flyers.

"It's really a brand-new thing to realize this could happen deep in our atmosphere with something as ordinary as a thunderstorm," said Joseph Dwyer, a physicist at the Florida Institute of Technology, during a webcast news conference.

The satellites currently studying this phenomenon are not designed to look at Earth; instead, the satellites probe black holes and other phenomena far away in the universe that produce gamma-rays, and happen to sense radiation from Earth that is coming from behind them.

This led scientists to say that the field of research could use a dedicated Earth-gazing satellite.



Read more: 'Dark lightning' sparks call for more Earth-gazing satellites | Fox News

 

[waltky]

Granny says it's God's vengeance...

American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning
July 30, 2013 -- Lightning strikes in the United States are almost six times more likely to kill a man than a woman, according to recently released data from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC did not explain why males are so much more likely than females to be killed by lightning. The CDC looked at deaths by lightning in the 43 years from 1968 through 2010. It found that during that period the annual number of Americans killed by lightning was on a downward trend, with the annual number of men being killed declining 78.6 percent and the annual number of women being killed declining 70.6 percent. However, over the 1968-2010 period, 85 percent of the Americans killed by lightning were male and 15 percent were female. That means American males were 5.66 times more likely to be killed by lightning than American females.

During the period, according to the CDC, a total of 3,389 Americans were killed by lightning, for an average of 79 a year. The greatest number was 131 in 1969; the lowest 29 in 2008 and 2010. The ratio of 5.66 American males being killed by lightning for each female killed by lightning has been fairly steady over time—despite the overall decrease in the annual number of Americans killed by lightning. Back in 1998, the CDC published an earlier report, looking at lightning deaths in the United States between 1980 and 1995. In that shorter time frame, 1,318 Americans were killed by lightning for an average of 82 per year. Of those 1,318 lightning victims, 1,125 (or 85 percent) were male.

That 1998 CDC report also said lightning was more likely to kill younger, as opposed to older, males. While 85 percent of all Americans killed by lightning from 1980-1995 were males, 68 percent were males aged 15 to 44. The CDC also said that in the 1980-1995 period deaths by lightning happened more frequently in certain states. “The greatest number of deaths attributable to lightning occurred in Florida and Texas (145 and 91, respectively), but New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, and Mississippi had the highest rates (10.0, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.0, respectively),” said the CDC.

The 1998 CDC report noted a "general decrease in the number of lightning-related deaths since the 1950s. "Possible explanations for the decrease," said that CDC report, "include fewer persons living and working in rural areas, improved warning systems, increased public education about safety regarding lightning, and improved medical care."

- See more at: American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning | CNS News

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea - we oughta weaponize it to zap dem terrorists inna butt...

New insights into creating ball lightning in the lab
19 August 2013 > US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.

The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second. In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft. But its rarity has made it extremely hard to study and to understand. The US Air Force Academy team hopes its new approach can help science to better understand this strange spectacle.

The plasmoid lasts up to about half a second

Dr Mike Lindsay, who led the study published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, said: "Ball lightning is used almost generically to describe phenomena seen in nature that aren't described by normal lightning, bead lightning or things like 'St Elmo's fire', or aurora. And likely it's not one thing but several things that have similar observables."

'Glow discharge'

According to some reports, the famous physicist and inventor Nikola Tesla was able to make ball lightning in his lab when he was based at Colorado Springs in 1899/1900. But if he did create it, he did not describe his methods in a way that has allowed anyone since to reproduce his work. Eye-witness reports of ball lightning vary wildly in the size of the ball, how long it lasts, and how it moves. Rhys Phillips, a lightning research engineer and science broadcaster, said: "To me at least, lightning is still not the word for what we're talking about here. We understand lightning to be a very fast discharge from one point to another - for example, a cloud to the Earth - (through a complex process admittedly) and the observations in [the current] paper don't describe that." Dr Lindsay does not disagree with this assessment.

In the paper, he and his colleagues describe previous research that generated what they refer to as a "glow discharge" of plasma (a charged gas) above an electrolyte solution. The new experiments re-use those earlier methods, but then manipulate the conditions to try to get the balls to last as long as possible. Dr Lindsay explained: "I don't think what we've created is lightning, although the initial stages of the electrical discharge that produce this 'plasmoid' have many similarities to lightning. They're just electric arcs - in this case, electric arcs to the surface of this solution of electrolytes. And then what happens is this plasmoid emerges from it. "So, I would agree that [going by] the general definition of lightning - no, this is not the same."

Extending time

 

[BlueGin]

Granny says it's God's vengeance...

American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning
July 30, 2013 -- Lightning strikes in the United States are almost six times more likely to kill a man than a woman, according to recently released data from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC did not explain why males are so much more likely than females to be killed by lightning. The CDC looked at deaths by lightning in the 43 years from 1968 through 2010. It found that during that period the annual number of Americans killed by lightning was on a downward trend, with the annual number of men being killed declining 78.6 percent and the annual number of women being killed declining 70.6 percent. However, over the 1968-2010 period, 85 percent of the Americans killed by lightning were male and 15 percent were female. That means American males were 5.66 times more likely to be killed by lightning than American females.

During the period, according to the CDC, a total of 3,389 Americans were killed by lightning, for an average of 79 a year. The greatest number was 131 in 1969; the lowest 29 in 2008 and 2010. The ratio of 5.66 American males being killed by lightning for each female killed by lightning has been fairly steady over time—despite the overall decrease in the annual number of Americans killed by lightning. Back in 1998, the CDC published an earlier report, looking at lightning deaths in the United States between 1980 and 1995. In that shorter time frame, 1,318 Americans were killed by lightning for an average of 82 per year. Of those 1,318 lightning victims, 1,125 (or 85 percent) were male.

That 1998 CDC report also said lightning was more likely to kill younger, as opposed to older, males. While 85 percent of all Americans killed by lightning from 1980-1995 were males, 68 percent were males aged 15 to 44. The CDC also said that in the 1980-1995 period deaths by lightning happened more frequently in certain states. “The greatest number of deaths attributable to lightning occurred in Florida and Texas (145 and 91, respectively), but New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, and Mississippi had the highest rates (10.0, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.0, respectively),” said the CDC.

The 1998 CDC report noted a "general decrease in the number of lightning-related deaths since the 1950s. "Possible explanations for the decrease," said that CDC report, "include fewer persons living and working in rural areas, improved warning systems, increased public education about safety regarding lightning, and improved medical care."

- See more at: American Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning | CNS News

Just their magnetic personalities? Or more likely to be out holding a lightening rod (see fishing poles and golf clubs) ?

 

[BlueGin]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea - we oughta weaponize it to zap dem terrorists inna butt...

New insights into creating ball lightning in the lab
19 August 2013 > US researchers say they have developed a more efficient way to produce a kind of ball lightning in the lab.

The Colorado team made brilliant clouds of plasma emerge from a specially prepared solution and maintained them for nearly half a second. In nature, ball lightning has been seen to float across land or through buildings and to even bounce down the aisles of aircraft. But its rarity has made it extremely hard to study and to understand. The US Air Force Academy team hopes its new approach can help science to better understand this strange spectacle.

The plasmoid lasts up to about half a second

Dr Mike Lindsay, who led the study published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, said: "Ball lightning is used almost generically to describe phenomena seen in nature that aren't described by normal lightning, bead lightning or things like 'St Elmo's fire', or aurora. And likely it's not one thing but several things that have similar observables."

'Glow discharge'

According to some reports, the famous physicist and inventor Nikola Tesla was able to make ball lightning in his lab when he was based at Colorado Springs in 1899/1900. But if he did create it, he did not describe his methods in a way that has allowed anyone since to reproduce his work. Eye-witness reports of ball lightning vary wildly in the size of the ball, how long it lasts, and how it moves. Rhys Phillips, a lightning research engineer and science broadcaster, said: "To me at least, lightning is still not the word for what we're talking about here. We understand lightning to be a very fast discharge from one point to another - for example, a cloud to the Earth - (through a complex process admittedly) and the observations in [the current] paper don't describe that." Dr Lindsay does not disagree with this assessment.

In the paper, he and his colleagues describe previous research that generated what they refer to as a "glow discharge" of plasma (a charged gas) above an electrolyte solution. The new experiments re-use those earlier methods, but then manipulate the conditions to try to get the balls to last as long as possible. Dr Lindsay explained: "I don't think what we've created is lightning, although the initial stages of the electrical discharge that produce this 'plasmoid' have many similarities to lightning. They're just electric arcs - in this case, electric arcs to the surface of this solution of electrolytes. And then what happens is this plasmoid emerges from it. "So, I would agree that [going by] the general definition of lightning - no, this is not the same."

Extending time

Zap butts?

oooh I totally need this. I could have a blast with it