Gigantic Lightning Jets Shoot from Clouds to Space – FOXNews.com — I wonder what would happen if these things hit a plane?
These bolts of upwards lightning, one type among a variety of electrical discharges now known to occur above thunderstaorms, are called gigantic jets, and were only first discovered in 2001.
Since then, only about 10 gigantic jets have been observed, said Steven Cummer, who was part of the team that photographed this most recent jet. Gigantic jets are essentially the same as cloud-to-ground lightning, only they go the opposite way.
“Gigantic jets are literally lightning that comes out of the thunderclouds, but instead of going down, like most lightning strokes do, these apparently find their way out the tops of thunderclouds, and then keep going and keep going and keep going until they run into something that stops them,” Cummer explained.
They are called sprites.
You probably knew that, just trying to get a conversation going, real or not.
Isn’t this what’s also called “Megalightning”?
I remember seeing a National Geo documentary on it once.
This phenomenon has been known since early nineties…Discovery channel had about 10 minutes on it on their Lightning special recently.
Unsure whether the ionosphere would play a role. The D layer is within reach but weak at night, unless there’s a solar storm or a cosmic ray event. Probably the E layer, in which case the sprites would have to reach up to altitudes of around 60 miles.
Only 10 seen in the last 8-9 years. The chances of one hitting a plane are probably less than that of a meteor hitting a plane.
IF they hit a plane? They do. And more frequently than you might think. They are the number one cause of High Flying Jet Vaporization Syndrome (NAMBLA) and are responsible to date for over a billion deaths.
But the government doesn’t want you to know about them, so they’ve hushed it up.
There are no aircraft threatened by sprites, their altitude is too low. Sprites originate above the tops of T-storms, at minimum 70,000 ft.
Since they start at about 31 miles high and
propagate upward, I guess most planes are safe.
They have been seen by the space shuttle crews
and for years by high altitude pilots.
See ‘Sprite (lightning)’ on Wikipedia.
I’m calling bullshit on this.
First there’s a guy names “Steven Cummer”
“Cummings” is a more common name, but Cummer?
And these phrases:
“but instead of going down, like most lightning strokes [sic] do,”
and..
“and then keep going and keep going and keep going….”
Come ON please how can this NOT be a joke?
oh add to the fact these images looks like planetary money shots shooting off the planet.. lol
add further: FOXnews
# 10 FRAGaLOT, sick, but in this case, I like how you reason.
this is so old…. i saw this on discovery like last week! and they had way better pictures and video. lame
These particular phenomena are far above the altitude flown by any aircraft except maybe spy planes.
Regular lightning, though, does strike airplanes from time to time. What happens is . . . not much. For one thing, pilots try to avoid thunderstorms, not because of the lightning but because of downdrafts and consequent wind shear.
However, a jet body is made of aluminum which is a pretty good conductor. LIghtning enters the body through the nose or a wingtip usually (electrostatic charge concentrates around pointy ends), travels through the body of the aircraft and exits through another point end. Passengers are unharmed because essentially they sit inside a Faraday cage. So does all the avionics.
Here’s a YouTube video of lightning striking a Quantas flight. You can see the plane is not disturbed at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=036hpBvjoQw
blah blah blah…
–as usual, more disinfo from our
bankrupt science community.
old news…seen a few vids of these a decade ago.
they’re usually red and blue in color.
given that all all weather (earthbound and spacebound) is wholly electrical in nature,
BFD..
but since we’re not taught that, i’ll stop right here, seeing as how my i loaned out my flame suit..
how about some ancient [web] insight..
http://lightning.nmt.edu/sprites/sprites.html
after that, more of my electric universe rants..
sprites and elves explained..
http://www.holoscience.com/news/balloon.html
clues for the clueless, film at 11
-s
#14, soundwash,
Time for your meds.