Lightning Hunters. Unusual Thunderstorm Experiments
Good afternoon, dear readers of Habr.
I will talk about my unusual hobby. No, this is not a photo / video zipper hunt. I catch lightning in the truest sense of the word, flying a kite into thunderclouds. I direct the energy of thunderstorms into special circuits and devices to conduct experiments.
')
I was always inspired by the beauty and power of lightning. The current in the lightning discharge reaches 10-300 thousand amperes, and the voltage ranges from tens of millions to a billion volts. Discharge power - from 1 to 1000 GW. That would be good to "tame" this energy!
I want to warn you, do not repeat it at home! I take special care and know the nature of electrical phenomena well. Remember, lightning damage is deadly.
The first thing that comes to mind is to bring the wire to the thundercloud and discharge the charge to the ground. But how to lift the wire so high? Having considered all possible options, I came to the conclusion that this can be done with the help of a kite. Even before the thunderstorm began, I thoroughly experienced a kite. I was pleasantly pleased with his lift! Even in a small wind the snake raised enough heavy loads, and in a strong wind it was difficult to hold it by the fishing line. But the snake wire could not lift high, since already 100 meters of wire weighed 2 kg and the wire had a large windage - it was blown away by the wind to the side. It was decided to replace the wire with a thin wire. Nothing that the wire can withstand a huge lightning current and instantly burns down, an ionized channel forms at the place of the wire, and the main charge of the lightning passes through the small resistance of this channel. To achieve the minimum weight, windage and as a result of the maximum height I used wires of different thickness: the first 100 meters from the snake is the thickest ≈0.3 mm, the next 100 meters are thinner, and so on, so that it does not break under its own weight. The line on which I let the snake also chose as thin as possible - 0.25 mm. Snake she held securely. A test run showed that the snake with a wire is able to fly up to an altitude of 300 - 500 meters. The clouds are certainly higher, but still worth a try.
After waiting for stormy weather, we drop everything, jump on a scooter and fly at maximum speed under a cloud. In the very place where lightning is more brilliant and thunder rumbles. It is so exciting that the strong wind and rain for us is no longer a hindrance. Reaching the site, we unwind 200 meters of fishing line and lay it in a straight line on the ground. We tie a kite and put a balloon near it, around which a wire is neatly wound. We put the balloon on an insulated box and ground it through the measuring current shunts, and also connect various household appliances to see what happens after the destructive force of a thunderstorm. As soon as the snake begins to fly, we run a safe distance and observe what is happening. The snake took off pretty well, but the lightning didn’t want to get into it, although it was loud nearby. We tried several times elsewhere and again failed. It became clear that you need to change something.
The lightning is near, and even caused by you, it is really cool.
You might be wondering, how did we manage to catch the lightning? See the place where the lightning struck. What did we experience being in close proximity to this terrible element? And find out what happened to our equipment after a thunderstorm. In this video, I will show everything in detail:
In the past video, I tied a thin wire to the snake and launched it in a thunderstorm, but nothing happened. Now I have refined this technology and delivered high voltage from the TV “Youth” to the wire. It uses 10,000 volts at the anode of the kinescope. This is quite enough to cause initial ionization. In the dark one can even observe how the corona discharge glows on the tip of the wire, which is fixed on the top of the snake. In stormy weather, I went out of town and on a high hill turned on a portable TV "Youth" from the battery. I properly grounded the body of the TV set, and connected the high-voltage output to a thin copper wire wound on a bottle. While the kite was gaining height, the wire was easily unwound from the bottle. At that time I was watching the process from a safe place. The serpent then gained altitude, then descended, causing the wire to touch the ground and spar. At the next gust of wind the snakes sharply darted upwards and the lightning with a deafening crash banged on the TV. I did not expect that the lightning would be such a strong shock wave, which rejected my video camera. The sensations from lightning are simply indescribable. The sound is like an explosion of an artillery shell, only more impressive and sharper. A flash is something. I managed to look at it well, since I saw it for a few minutes, especially if my eyes were closed. And the inner feelings are beyond words! After the lightning, we did not immediately come to our senses. Just could not believe that this can be done by hand. And then, as not quite sane, they ran around the forest, fearing that the noise might come to the military.
In just 5 minutes we flew home and now you can safely examine the consequences of a lightning strike. If you look at the video that I filmed in frames, then you can see sparks that diverge from the rings from the TV - this magnetic induction tore the remaining turns of wire from the bottle. Then you can see how the lightning jumped on the TV antenna and instantly evaporated it! Lightning went out of the channel switch to the ground, melting it like after welding. Battery wire burned out. For some reason I did not see the molten earth in the place where the lightning struck. Maybe I got a weak lightning. But he found three holes on the ground, around which the grass burned out. It turns out that lightning entered the ground in three different places, one near the TV channel selector and the other a meter away from the TV. Why did it happen? Maybe there was a series of lightning and each hit a new place? And what happened to the TV? To my surprise, the kinescope did not explode; some strange spots appeared on it. The back wall flew off, melted and covered with bubbles. The antenna has completely evaporated, only a pipelet remains. The board was covered with a strange purple bloom and a lot of tracks burned out. From the dynamics of the membrane vomited. But the battery is a pity. Although he was away and there was no direct lightning strike, he melted and cracked and completely discharged. After full charge, to my surprise, it worked fine. And the cracks were not through - melted from the inside.
Now the main secret of lightning unraveled. And what would you like to defuse the storm? Write in the comments and we will do it.
Recently, I saw scientists in laboratory conditions getting fireballs. They immerse the electrode in the water and give it a high-voltage pulse, as a result, a ball lightning flies out, which goes out in a split second. This time I decided to conduct a larger experiment. I plunged a massive electrode into a river and gave it a thunderstorm, connecting it through a wire to a kite flying up to a thundercloud. But something went wrong. The wire began to spark, after which the snake hissed and lit up with a bright blue glow. A luminous ribbon began to descend from it and as soon as it touched the ground, lightning struck with deafening power. I did not understand what a strange natural phenomenon I was watching! For some reason, the lightning struck not the river, but the shore, leaving a burned mark on the ground:
It is a pity that the camera, which was filmed on a video of a kite, turned off and did not take a picture of how it glowed. Generally, to shoot a lightning is close, not such an easy task. The fotik hangs from a powerful electromagnetic pulse, and the flash drive cannot be read from it. But one camera was more durable and never turned off during the filming. But here I faced another difficulty. A flash of lightning near it looks very bright, like a thousand arcs from a welding machine. The camera does not have time to adjust the exposure and is blinded, because of which the frame with lightning turns out to be illuminated. Reducing exposure and sports shooting mode does not help here. Of course, ideally, thunderstorms need to be shot with a high-speed camera, but the cost of such a camera is shocking: Sony NEX-FX700R, which can shoot 960 frames per second, costs $ 7,000, and Fastec TS3Cine for 10,000 frames per second. It costs $ 30,000. Even on the decommissioned camera in the killed state, I will not soon collect money. Maybe you know how you can capture high-quality thunderstorm phenomena? Share your ideas. I will be glad to any help.
Sorry, but the season of thunderstorms is over. And there are still so many ideas left unfulfilled. In the meantime, on the street cold, it's time to properly prepare for the next season. I am already preparing a dozen advanced settings for catching lightning. The wire will be lifted with the help of a model rocket engine, which will give a significant increase in height. The ignition control will be remote, which will increase safety. All the necessary devices and wires will be fixed in advance in each installation so that, having come to the site, you will not have to lose precious time. I am preparing a suitable video equipment in order to accurately capture a full-angle lightning. Get SLOW-MO shots of lightning strikes in:
- tree;
- gas cylinder;
- nokia phone;
- working microwave;
- and much more (suggest in the comments).
It is clear and not illuminated to shoot a fireball and, if lucky, other rare thunderstorm phenomena. Get fulgurite . I also want to conduct a series of experiments with the energy of lightning. Now I study this topic on the Internet in order to prepare well for such experiments. Maybe lucky and will be able to discover something new!
This season, much more was planned, but in our city, not everything is so simple: when the snake was first launched, it was necessary to look around, whether a tank or an armored troop carrier was going, fearing that the military would take us for scouts. The following experiment was carried out for a specific bombing, and when lightning slammed into our television, we were seriously afraid of the military, who could take our lightning for an enemy army! And we, like madmen, ran through the woods and went home from there. My friend was caught by people with machine guns, they took the phone, put it in the trunk and took it away in an unknown direction. We were lucky, he was not captured. Our last experience with ball lightning took place in landing littered with unexploded ordnance. We asked the sappers, mine-clearing houses, to demine the landing, but they categorically refused to go there, saying that the sniper worked in the landing. Our words did not convince them that we were there and did not see the snipers.
Most of the experiments were conducted at the beginning of the summer, but it was only recently possible to post a video and write this article. We live in Lugansk in the east of Ukraine and as a result of the shelling, the half-million city for almost three months completely remained without electricity, the Internet and in general without any connection.
I have it all. Next season, expect much more ambitious experiments from me. Be careful in a thunderstorm. Do not forget to share your ideas in the comments, your experience and knowledge are important to us!
I will talk about my unusual hobby. No, this is not a photo / video zipper hunt. I catch lightning in the truest sense of the word, flying a kite into thunderclouds. I direct the energy of thunderstorms into special circuits and devices to conduct experiments.
')
I was always inspired by the beauty and power of lightning. The current in the lightning discharge reaches 10-300 thousand amperes, and the voltage ranges from tens of millions to a billion volts. Discharge power - from 1 to 1000 GW. That would be good to "tame" this energy!
I want to warn you, do not repeat it at home! I take special care and know the nature of electrical phenomena well. Remember, lightning damage is deadly.
The birth of an idea
The first thing that comes to mind is to bring the wire to the thundercloud and discharge the charge to the ground. But how to lift the wire so high? Having considered all possible options, I came to the conclusion that this can be done with the help of a kite. Even before the thunderstorm began, I thoroughly experienced a kite. I was pleasantly pleased with his lift! Even in a small wind the snake raised enough heavy loads, and in a strong wind it was difficult to hold it by the fishing line. But the snake wire could not lift high, since already 100 meters of wire weighed 2 kg and the wire had a large windage - it was blown away by the wind to the side. It was decided to replace the wire with a thin wire. Nothing that the wire can withstand a huge lightning current and instantly burns down, an ionized channel forms at the place of the wire, and the main charge of the lightning passes through the small resistance of this channel. To achieve the minimum weight, windage and as a result of the maximum height I used wires of different thickness: the first 100 meters from the snake is the thickest ≈0.3 mm, the next 100 meters are thinner, and so on, so that it does not break under its own weight. The line on which I let the snake also chose as thin as possible - 0.25 mm. Snake she held securely. A test run showed that the snake with a wire is able to fly up to an altitude of 300 - 500 meters. The clouds are certainly higher, but still worth a try.
First experience
After waiting for stormy weather, we drop everything, jump on a scooter and fly at maximum speed under a cloud. In the very place where lightning is more brilliant and thunder rumbles. It is so exciting that the strong wind and rain for us is no longer a hindrance. Reaching the site, we unwind 200 meters of fishing line and lay it in a straight line on the ground. We tie a kite and put a balloon near it, around which a wire is neatly wound. We put the balloon on an insulated box and ground it through the measuring current shunts, and also connect various household appliances to see what happens after the destructive force of a thunderstorm. As soon as the snake begins to fly, we run a safe distance and observe what is happening. The snake took off pretty well, but the lightning didn’t want to get into it, although it was loud nearby. We tried several times elsewhere and again failed. It became clear that you need to change something.
Hooray! We managed to conquer the storm!
The lightning is near, and even caused by you, it is really cool.
You might be wondering, how did we manage to catch the lightning? See the place where the lightning struck. What did we experience being in close proximity to this terrible element? And find out what happened to our equipment after a thunderstorm. In this video, I will show everything in detail:
In the past video, I tied a thin wire to the snake and launched it in a thunderstorm, but nothing happened. Now I have refined this technology and delivered high voltage from the TV “Youth” to the wire. It uses 10,000 volts at the anode of the kinescope. This is quite enough to cause initial ionization. In the dark one can even observe how the corona discharge glows on the tip of the wire, which is fixed on the top of the snake. In stormy weather, I went out of town and on a high hill turned on a portable TV "Youth" from the battery. I properly grounded the body of the TV set, and connected the high-voltage output to a thin copper wire wound on a bottle. While the kite was gaining height, the wire was easily unwound from the bottle. At that time I was watching the process from a safe place. The serpent then gained altitude, then descended, causing the wire to touch the ground and spar. At the next gust of wind the snakes sharply darted upwards and the lightning with a deafening crash banged on the TV. I did not expect that the lightning would be such a strong shock wave, which rejected my video camera. The sensations from lightning are simply indescribable. The sound is like an explosion of an artillery shell, only more impressive and sharper. A flash is something. I managed to look at it well, since I saw it for a few minutes, especially if my eyes were closed. And the inner feelings are beyond words! After the lightning, we did not immediately come to our senses. Just could not believe that this can be done by hand. And then, as not quite sane, they ran around the forest, fearing that the noise might come to the military.
In just 5 minutes we flew home and now you can safely examine the consequences of a lightning strike. If you look at the video that I filmed in frames, then you can see sparks that diverge from the rings from the TV - this magnetic induction tore the remaining turns of wire from the bottle. Then you can see how the lightning jumped on the TV antenna and instantly evaporated it! Lightning went out of the channel switch to the ground, melting it like after welding. Battery wire burned out. For some reason I did not see the molten earth in the place where the lightning struck. Maybe I got a weak lightning. But he found three holes on the ground, around which the grass burned out. It turns out that lightning entered the ground in three different places, one near the TV channel selector and the other a meter away from the TV. Why did it happen? Maybe there was a series of lightning and each hit a new place? And what happened to the TV? To my surprise, the kinescope did not explode; some strange spots appeared on it. The back wall flew off, melted and covered with bubbles. The antenna has completely evaporated, only a pipelet remains. The board was covered with a strange purple bloom and a lot of tracks burned out. From the dynamics of the membrane vomited. But the battery is a pity. Although he was away and there was no direct lightning strike, he melted and cracked and completely discharged. After full charge, to my surprise, it worked fine. And the cracks were not through - melted from the inside.
Now the main secret of lightning unraveled. And what would you like to defuse the storm? Write in the comments and we will do it.
Why don't we get a fireball?
Recently, I saw scientists in laboratory conditions getting fireballs. They immerse the electrode in the water and give it a high-voltage pulse, as a result, a ball lightning flies out, which goes out in a split second. This time I decided to conduct a larger experiment. I plunged a massive electrode into a river and gave it a thunderstorm, connecting it through a wire to a kite flying up to a thundercloud. But something went wrong. The wire began to spark, after which the snake hissed and lit up with a bright blue glow. A luminous ribbon began to descend from it and as soon as it touched the ground, lightning struck with deafening power. I did not understand what a strange natural phenomenon I was watching! For some reason, the lightning struck not the river, but the shore, leaving a burned mark on the ground:
It is a pity that the camera, which was filmed on a video of a kite, turned off and did not take a picture of how it glowed. Generally, to shoot a lightning is close, not such an easy task. The fotik hangs from a powerful electromagnetic pulse, and the flash drive cannot be read from it. But one camera was more durable and never turned off during the filming. But here I faced another difficulty. A flash of lightning near it looks very bright, like a thousand arcs from a welding machine. The camera does not have time to adjust the exposure and is blinded, because of which the frame with lightning turns out to be illuminated. Reducing exposure and sports shooting mode does not help here. Of course, ideally, thunderstorms need to be shot with a high-speed camera, but the cost of such a camera is shocking: Sony NEX-FX700R, which can shoot 960 frames per second, costs $ 7,000, and Fastec TS3Cine for 10,000 frames per second. It costs $ 30,000. Even on the decommissioned camera in the killed state, I will not soon collect money. Maybe you know how you can capture high-quality thunderstorm phenomena? Share your ideas. I will be glad to any help.
The most interesting and unusual ahead
Sorry, but the season of thunderstorms is over. And there are still so many ideas left unfulfilled. In the meantime, on the street cold, it's time to properly prepare for the next season. I am already preparing a dozen advanced settings for catching lightning. The wire will be lifted with the help of a model rocket engine, which will give a significant increase in height. The ignition control will be remote, which will increase safety. All the necessary devices and wires will be fixed in advance in each installation so that, having come to the site, you will not have to lose precious time. I am preparing a suitable video equipment in order to accurately capture a full-angle lightning. Get SLOW-MO shots of lightning strikes in:
- tree;
- gas cylinder;
- nokia phone;
- working microwave;
- and much more (suggest in the comments).
It is clear and not illuminated to shoot a fireball and, if lucky, other rare thunderstorm phenomena. Get fulgurite . I also want to conduct a series of experiments with the energy of lightning. Now I study this topic on the Internet in order to prepare well for such experiments. Maybe lucky and will be able to discover something new!
The horrors of our town
This season, much more was planned, but in our city, not everything is so simple: when the snake was first launched, it was necessary to look around, whether a tank or an armored troop carrier was going, fearing that the military would take us for scouts. The following experiment was carried out for a specific bombing, and when lightning slammed into our television, we were seriously afraid of the military, who could take our lightning for an enemy army! And we, like madmen, ran through the woods and went home from there. My friend was caught by people with machine guns, they took the phone, put it in the trunk and took it away in an unknown direction. We were lucky, he was not captured. Our last experience with ball lightning took place in landing littered with unexploded ordnance. We asked the sappers, mine-clearing houses, to demine the landing, but they categorically refused to go there, saying that the sniper worked in the landing. Our words did not convince them that we were there and did not see the snipers.
Most of the experiments were conducted at the beginning of the summer, but it was only recently possible to post a video and write this article. We live in Lugansk in the east of Ukraine and as a result of the shelling, the half-million city for almost three months completely remained without electricity, the Internet and in general without any connection.
I have it all. Next season, expect much more ambitious experiments from me. Be careful in a thunderstorm. Do not forget to share your ideas in the comments, your experience and knowledge are important to us!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/243095/
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