Latest Lightning Stories
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) - R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) spaceflight instrument Engineering Development Unit completed optical-electronic lightning sensitivity testing in January at the Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto and showed excellent performance. System gain, linearity, and dynamic range all exceeded specifications. Within the next few months,...
When you read the following paragraph, consider the following: Tornado season hasn't even started yet. On Jan. 22 and 23, 2012, more than 37 tornadoes struck the southern USA. Ten of them tore across the Lower Mississippi Valley into Alabama. Worst hit were St. Clair and Jefferson County, Ala., where 2 people were killed, about 100 others injured, and at least $30 million in damage was done. It was a chilling reminder of the April 2011 onslaught of deadly tornadoes that took a staggering...
SINGER ISLAND, Fla., Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lightning protection experts, engineers and safety directors will be meeting in Singer Island this week (2/28 - 3/2) to discuss the latest advances in lightning protection, according to the Lightning Protection Institute (LPI). The full meeting agenda can be found at the LPI website at www.lightning.org. Topics will include: Lightning Inspection Programs Lightning Safety at Recreation Facilities Proper Installation...
[ Watch the Video ] On February 5, 2002, NASA launched what was then called the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) into orbit. Renamed within months as the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) after Reuven Ramaty, a deceased NASA scientist who had long championed the mission, the spacecraft's job was to observe giant explosions on the sun called solar flares. During a solar flare, the gas soars to over 20 million degrees Fahrenheit, and emits X-rays that...
HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ohio's contestant in the upcoming Miss America pageant never dreamed that participation in the scholarship competition would provide an opportunity to share her sister's story in hopes of saving others' lives. Miss Ohio, Ellen Bryan has been concerned about the cause of lightning safety ever since her older sister was struck by lightning 11 years ago. Her sister, who was 17 at the time of the debilitating injury, is...
[ Watch the Video ] NASA said on Monday that scientists have discovered lightning-made waves in Earth's atmosphere that leaked into space. The space agency's Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) aboard the U.S. Air Force's Communications/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) satellite has detected Schumann resonance from space. Schumann resonance happens if waves are just the right wavelength from lightning, combining and increasing in strength to create a repeating...
TAU researchers predict "sprites" in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by lightning storms, and a valuable window into the composition of our atmosphere. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University say that sprites are not a phenomenon specific to our planet. Jupiter and Saturn experience lightning storms with...
Industry Experts Urge Caution in Hiring Contractors to Protect Homes HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the nation set to recognize Veteran's Day amid war coverage and news about security threats, a recent 9/11 Opinion Survey shows that Americans remain very concerned about a major terrorist attack happening in the United States. The survey also revealed that Americans are spending money to better protect themselves from natural hazards like lightning and...
Researchers at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand, have developed a new, lower-voltage method of generating extra-long, lightning-like electrical arcs. The arcs are created when an electrical impulse is applied to a thin copper wire that subsequently explodes. By jump-starting the arcs using exploding wires, as opposed to the traditional method of directly breaking down air, the researchers reduced the amount of voltage needed to create an arc of a given length by more than 95...
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Part of human fascination with space is the chance to look back at our own planet from afar. The unique vantage from the International Space Station affords a vista both breathtaking and scientifically illuminating. Here on Earth, both scientists and spectators rely on the station's crew to record and transmit images and videos of what they see to share in their experience. Until recently, reduced lighting conditions at night, combined with insufficiently...
Latest Lightning Reference Libraries
When we think of thunderstorms we have to remember the deadliest part of those storms and that is the lightning that occurs with them. Lightning is found in many forms. The first type of lightning is known as cloud to cloud meaning that the electric charge travels from one cloud to the other. The second type of lightning is the Cloud to Air meaning the lighting moves from the cloud and enters the clear air of the sky. A third type of lightning is the cloud to ground. This is the most...
A lightning rod is a metal conductor mounted on the top of a building and connected through a wire to the ground to protect the building from lightning. The rod should conduct the electricity from a lightning strike down through the wire instead of passing through the building. The rod is just a single component in the lightning protections system along with rooftop conductors and multiple conductive paths. Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1749. The taller the building the...
Heat Lightning is actually faint flashes of lightning reflecting outward from distant thunderstorms. These flashes usually do not produce thunder as the storm is sometimes too far away to be heard. The term heat lightning got its name because it often occurs on hot summer nights and does not produce audible thunder. One reason heat lightning can be seen so far away is due to the reflection of the light bouncing off water particles in moist, humid air and as light is scattered throughout the...
