Look closely where the lightning meets the water. Tiny bolts appear to be dancing around the impact site.
Posted on 06/01/2009 9:16:36 AM PDT by Squidpup
LIGHTNING SPLASH: On May 26th, photographers Francis Schaefers and Daniel Burger were chasing a thunderstorm along a beach in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, when "the storm turned around and came a little too close for comfort," says Schaefers. "We were able to photograph lightning hitting the water just 40 meters away." Here is the view through their Canon 400D:
Look closely where the lightning meets the water. Tiny bolts appear to be dancing around the impact site.
"Those are called 'upward streamers,'" says lightning expert Richard Blakeslee of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "In a typical cloud-to-ground lightning strike, as the leader approaches the ground, the large electric field at the leader tip induces these upward propagating streamers. The first one that connects to the downward propagating leader initiates the bright return stroke that we see with our eye. Upward streamers are often observed on photographs of lightning hitting the ground."
Now we know they can be seen when lightning hits the water, too.
Schaefers and Burger took many pictures that night, mostly from underneath a balcony where they figured the lightning wouldn't reach. This favorite is called The Cruise You Don't Want to Take.
“Stroke on the water...fire in the sky...”
yes, that is why the picture is entitled “The Cruise You Don’t Want to Take”!
oooh aaah
Awesome photos.
Nothing like a good zot to clear the nostrils.
smooth sailing so far, pretty calm seas, overcast and drizzle but the sun looms ready to pop thru..
Awesome! No, really, really awesome in the old meaning of the word. Thanks for posting it.
Really cool photos.
Many years ago I had lightning strike very close by, just across a street from me, in a parking lot in Phoenix. I just happened to be looking right in that direction when BAM it struck. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. It was intensely LOUD and bright... but the thing I had never really thought about before was how THICK it was. I’d never really considered that before, but this bolt was as big as the trunk of a big oldgrowth cedar tree. Maybe five feet across or more. Very cool. Amazing power.
Lightning looks like that on Lake Michigan as well, s’cool.
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