Strawberry Sun
This striking, otherworldy scene really is a view from planet Earth. The ochre sky and strawberry red sun were photographed on August 22nd 2013, near the small village of Strawberry, California.

Found along Highway 108, that location is about 30 miles north of the origin of California's large Rim Fire, still threatening areas in and around Yosemite National Park. The extensive smoke plumes from the wildfire are easily visible from space. But seen from within the plumes, the fine smoke particles suspended in the atmosphere dim the Sun, scattering blue light and strongly coloring the sky. 

Image & info via APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Laurie Hatch 

#nasa   #sun   #naturalphenomena   #space  
 

What causes volcanic lightning?
How lightning forms in general is still debated among scientists, and volcanic lightning is even less well understood. What is mostly agreed upon is that the process starts when particles separate, either after a collision or when a larger particle breaks in two. Then some difference in the aerodynamics of these particles causes the positively charged particles to be systematically separated from the negatively charged particles. Lightning is the electrical flow that results when this charge separation becomes too great for air to resist the flow of electricity.

Pictured below, the Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan was caught erupting in early January 2013.
The below image is particularly notable, however, for the lightning bolts caught near the volcano's summit.
One hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas.

Image & info via APOD
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130311.html

Reference:
http://geology.com/articles/volcanic-lightning/

Image Credit & Copyright:
Martin Rietze (Alien Landscapes on Planet Earth)

#naturalphenomena   #volcaniclightning  

High-Speed Camera at Florida Tech Captures Amazing Lightning Flashes

Scientists at Florida Institute of Technology used a high-speed camera to capture amazing lighting flashes from a May thunderstorm about six miles from the university’s Melbourne campus.

The flashes were recorded at 7,000 frames per second, and the video was captured using a high-speed camera purchased with a $456,000 grant from the National Science Foundation obtained by Dr. Ningyu Liu, an associate professor in Florida Tech’s Geospace Physics Lab and the principal investigator for the project, and Dr. Hamid Rassoul, dean of Florida Tech’s College of Science and the project’s co-principal investigator. The work also involves graduate students Levi Boggs, Julia Tilles, and Alan Bozarth.

► More information here>>
http://newsroom.fit.edu/2016/06/02/high-speed-camera-florida-tech-captures-amazing-lightning-flash/

► Credit: Geospace Physics Laboratory

► Gif via http://gizmodo.com

► Watch the video "Lightning Storm Recorded at 7000 Frames Per Second">> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUIpltFo_fg

Further reading

► SEVERE WEATHER 101: Lightning>>
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/types/

► Lightning flashes and strokes>> http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightning2.html

► Where lightning flashes most>>
http://earthsky.org/earth/where-on-earth-does-lightning-flash-most

#naturalphenomena, #physics, #GeospacePhysics, #tech, #LightningFlashes, #spaceSciences

A Halo Around the Moon 
Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the Moon Halo. 

A similar Sun Halo may be visible during the day. The setting of the below picture is Athens, Greece. The distant planet Jupiter appears by chance on the halo's left. Exactly how ice-crystals form in clouds remains under investigation.

Image & info via APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis (TWAN)

Moon halo - read & learn:
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/halo/22.rxml

#naturalphenomena   #moonhalo   #space  

Fata Morgana
Did this mirage help sink the Titanic? The optical phenomenon called Fata Morgana can make strange shapes or a false wall of water appear above a watery horizon. When conditions are right, light reflecting off of cold water will be bent by an unusual layer of warm air above to arrive at the observer from several different angles.

A conceptually comparable mirage can make a setting Sun appear strangely distorted or a distant pavement appear wet. Fata Morgana mirage might have obscured real icebergs from the clear view of crew onboard the Titanic. Additional evidence for this distortion hypothesis arises from the nearby vessel SS Californian which reported sightings consistent with Fata Morgana mirages. The below Fata Morgana mirage was taken off the US Pacific coast in 2008.  

Image & info via APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Mila Zinkova

Fata Morgana mirage - read & learn:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz168.htm

#naturalphenomena   #fatamorgana   #opticalphenomenon  

What is a hybrid solar eclipse?
A hybrid eclipse is a unique type of central eclipse where parts of the path are annular while other parts are total. This duality comes about when the vertex of the Moon's umbral shadow pierces Earth's surface at some points, but falls short of the planet along other portions of the eclipse path.

The curvature of Earth's surface brings some geographic locations along the path into the umbra while other positions are more distant and enter the antumbral rather than umbral shadow. In most cases, the hybrid eclipse begins annular, changes to total for the central portion of the path, and then converts back to annular towards the end of the path. However, some hybrid eclipses may be annular only at the beginning or at the end of the path.

A spectacular geocentric celestial event of 2005 was a rare hybrid eclipse of the Sun - a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location. For Fred Espenak, aboard a gently swaying ship within the middle of the Moon's shadow track about 2,200 kilometers west of the Galapagos, the eclipse was total, the lunar silhouette exactly covering the bright solar disk for a few brief moments. His camera captured a picture of totality revealing the extensive solar corona and prominences rising above the Sun's edge.

But for Stephan Heinsius, near the end of the shadow track at Penonome Airfield, Panama, the Moon's apparent size had shrunk enough to create an annular eclipse, showing a complete annulus of the Sun's bright disk as a dramatic ring of fire. Pictures from the two locations are compared below.

How rare is such a hybrid eclipse? Calculations show that during the 21st century just 3.1% (7 out of 224) of solar eclipses are hybrid while hybrids comprise about 5% of all solar eclipses over the period 2000 BC to AD 3000. Today's hybrid solar eclipse is most widely visible beyond the central shadow track as a brief partial eclipse from northeastern Americas through Africa, and along the track in an annular phase for only the first 15 seconds.

Image & info via APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Left: Fred Espenak - Right: Stephan Heinsius
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131103.html

#naturalphenomena   #hybridsolareclipse   #space   #universe  

The signs as Natural Phenomena

*I made this collage. Want apologize for Pisces, Aries and Capricorn. Your symbols are there, it just that all the symbols are transparent.*😔

#Gemini #naturalphenomena #wickedcool #enjoy #zodiac

Every morning has its splendor, even a morning before rain.
Just 70 km from Paris, find great places, to observe the most beautiful natural phenomena, and of course to create a good mood, for a full day of work. Ile-de-France, France

#vitektuluc #Tuluc #vitektulucsTrips #Vitek #GoldTime #IronLife #BestTime #IleDeFrance #Plaisir #Paris #France #EveryMorning #Rain #70KM #GreatPlaces #Beautiful #Natural #GoodMood #NaturalPhenomena #Fullday #Work #Rainbow #Green #Summer #2015

What is lightning? - post for Matt
Clouds may look fluffy and innocent, but they are actually active places. Water and ice move around inside the cloud; forced up by warm air currents, down by gravity, and compressed in the cloud. Just as rubbing a balloon can create static electricity, the particles in the cloud become charged. Charges separate in the cloud. Positive charges move up, and negatives move down.

Once a significant charge separation has built up, the positive and negative charges seek to reach each other an neutralise. ‘Streamers’ come up from the ground to form a pathway. Once a pathway is completed a spark forms, neutralizing the charge.
As the negative charge races down, the air surrounding it heats up.The spark is very hot at almost 20,000 degrees Celsius, and it rapidly heats the air to create a shock wave.

Considering light travels very fast – about 300 million metres per second, and that sound only travels at 300 metres per second; light is a million times faster than the sound produced. To find out how far away the storm is, you can count how long you hear the sound after the lightning. For every 4 seconds between the flash and the rumble, the thunderstorm is 1 mile away.

Watch:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0gNl5f4BU

Source:
http://www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk/activity-blogs/lightning

What causes lightning?:
http://www.planet-science.com/categories/over-11s/natural-world/2012/06/what-causes-lightning.aspx

#naturalphenomena   #lightning   #science  

A Green Flash from the Sun
Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun. The truth is the green flash does exist and its cause is well understood.

Just as the setting Sun disappears completely from view, a last glimmer appears startlingly green. The effect is typically visible only from locations with a low, distant horizon, and lasts just a few seconds.

A green flash is also visible for a rising Sun, but takes better timing to spot. A dramatic green flash, as well as an even more rare red flash, was caught in the below photograph observed during a sunset visible from the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos in the Canary Islands, Spain. The Sun itself does not turn partly green or red -- the effect is caused by layers of the Earth's atmosphere acting like a prism.

Image & Info via APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel López (El Cielo de Canarias)

Reference:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html

#naturalphenomena   #greenflash   #nasa