Something absolutely mind-blowing happened on the International Space Station recently, and fortunately, video captured it all. Researchers on the ISS were able to catch the rare moment when blue lightning filled a storm cloud far below, and you can watch the video below. <\/p>\n
Blue flashes are rare to see from the ground, as they typically happen high in the sky above the thunderstorms. Researchers pointed a special camera at the clouds in order to better study them, and they were rewarded with some amazing footage. <\/p>\n
The results were provided to the National Space Institute in Denmark, which is making them public. These massive blue flashes of lightning are believed to happen at around 18 kilometers above the ground. One flash spanned 40 kilometers in length. <\/p>\n
Heres what NOAA says about lightning. <\/p>\n
What is lightning? Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground. When the opposite charges builds up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning. The flash of lightning temporarily equalizes the charged regions in the atmosphere until the opposite charges build up again. <\/p>\n
Lightning can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (intra-cloud lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning). <\/p>\n
Lightning is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on earth. It can be seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, in large hurricanes, and obviously, thunderstorms. What are cloud flashes? A cloud flash is lightning that occurs inside the cloud, travels from one part of a cloud to another, or from the cloud to the air. What is a stepped leader? A stepped leader is a stream of weakly charged particles that flows from the cloud it moves towards the ground, starting and stopping, and sometimes branching, trying to find the path of least resistance. Is it possible to have thunder without lightning? No, it is not possible to have thunder without lightning. Thunder is a direct result of lightning. However, it IS possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away. Sometimes this is called heat lightning because it occurs most often in the summer. Is lightning always produced by a thunderstorm? Thunderstorms always have lightning (thunder is caused by lightning, and you cant have a thunderstorm without thunder), but you can have lightning without a thunderstorm. Lightning can also be seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, and in heavy snowstorms. What causes thunder? Thunder is caused by lightning. The bright light of the lightning flash caused by the return stroke mentioned above represents a great deal of energy. This energy heats the air in the channel to above 50,000 degrees F in only a few millionths of a second! The air that is now heated to such a high temperature had no time to expand, so it is now at a very high pressure. The high pressure air then expands outward into the surrounding air compressing it and causing a disturbance that propagates in all directions away from the stroke. The disturbance is a shock wave for the first 10 yards, after which it becomes an ordinary sound wave, or thunder. Thunder can seem like it goes on and on because each point along the channel produces a shock wave and sound wave. What is dry lightning? Dry lightning is lightning that occurs without rain nearby. The NOAA Storm Prediction Center routinely forecasts dry lightning because this kind is more likely to cause forest fires. What is a bolt from the blue? A Bolt from the Blue is a cloud-to-ground flash which typically comes out of the back side of the thunderstorm cloud, travels a relatively large distance in clear air away from the storm cloud, and then angles down and strikes the ground. These lightning flashes have been documented to travel more than 25 miles away from the thunderstorm cloud. They can be especially dangerous because they appear to come from clear blue sky. <\/p>\n
A helmeted bicyclist experienced a lightning strike to the head under fair weather conditions with a cloudless sky. It was determined that the bolt probably originated in a thunderstorm that was about 16km away and obscured by mountains. <\/p>\n
Lightning strikes the ground approximately 25 million times each year in the U.S. According to the NWS, the chance of an individual in the U.S. being killed or injured during a given year is one in 240,000. Assuming an average life-span of 80 years, a persons odds over their lifetime becomes one in 3000. Assuming the average person has ten family members and others with whom they are close, then the chances are one in 300 that a lightning strike will closely affect a person during their lifetime. <\/p>\n
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Incredible video captured on the International Space Station stuns the world - BABW News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Something absolutely mind-blowing happened on the International Space Station recently, and fortunately, video captured it all. Continue reading