lightning

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

nubbsgalore:

three separate off duty commercial aviators photographed cumulonimbus clouds illuminated by flashes of lightning from their planes.

otherwise known as thunderclouds, cumulonimbus are the only cloud type that can produce hail, thunder and lighting. the base of the cloud is often flat with a very dark wall like feature hanging underneath, and may only lie a few hundred feet above the earth’s surface.   

cumulonimbus clouds are created through convection, often growing from small cumulus clouds over a hot surface.they get increasingly big until they represent huge powerhouses, storing the same amount of energy as ten hiroshima sized atom bombs. 

although the storm looks formidable, today’s airliners have advanced equipment to circle around storms this big without entering any dangerous zones.

(photos x, x) 

Tags:

#storms #lightning #pretty things

Image ~ ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sci-universe:

This is how a close-up of lightning beneath a cumulonimbus cloud looks like from space. An astronaut on International Space Station (ISS) captured this image while orbiting over Bolivia in 2011.

There’s also a more recent image of lightning’s white flash amidst the yellow city lights of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from 2013:

Hopefully, we are going to see more and more of these amazing images since there is a new instrument on ISS, called the Firestation,  which is specifically designed to study lightning.

Tags:

#space #weather #pretty things #the power of science