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Lightning Splash (Zot on the Water - Amazing Pics)
Spaceweather ^ | June 1, 2009 | Francis Schaefers and Daniel Burger

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.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Weather
KEYWORDS: lightning; spaceweather; zotpic
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1 posted on 06/01/2009 9:16:37 AM PDT by Squidpup
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To: Squidpup

[cue Deep Purple]


2 posted on 06/01/2009 9:17:06 AM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: Squidpup

Wearing brown pants ping for sailors on that ship out there.


3 posted on 06/01/2009 9:19:00 AM PDT by rlmorel ("The Road to Serfdom" by F.A.Hayek - Read it...today.)
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To: Squidpup

Lightning bolt chasing is a great pasttime....until you catch one......


4 posted on 06/01/2009 9:19:19 AM PDT by OB1kNOb (I asked my broker what he's buying today. He replied: "Canned food and ammunition.")
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To: Squidpup

Beautiful photos!


5 posted on 06/01/2009 9:19:21 AM PDT by Sister_T (The Obama Administration = EPIC FAIL!)
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To: RichInOC

*snort* Best visual example of that song I could imagine!


6 posted on 06/01/2009 9:20:20 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Squidpup

Underwater trolls. They can run, but they can’t hide.


7 posted on 06/01/2009 9:20:36 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Squidpup
This Freeper’s got a new wall paper!
8 posted on 06/01/2009 9:21:36 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my Dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: OB1kNOb
Lightning bolt chasing is a great pasttime....until you catch one......

In Soviet Russia, lightning bolt catches YOU.

9 posted on 06/01/2009 9:23:02 AM PDT by SIDENET (Hubba Hubba...)
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To: Squidpup
COOL!!


10 posted on 06/01/2009 9:23:32 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Squidpup
"Well, this is not a boat accident! And it wasn't any propeller; and it wasn't any coral reef; and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark Zot."
11 posted on 06/01/2009 9:24:27 AM PDT by IrishPennant (RLT = Radical Left Terrorism...feel it????)
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To: Squidpup

Great pic.

Thx.


12 posted on 06/01/2009 9:26:43 AM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Squidpup

Lightning really pisses me off.


13 posted on 06/01/2009 9:29:02 AM PDT by Lazamataz (I'm not paying it, so screw you, Obama!)
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To: Squidpup

It didn’t seem to light up the background very much.


14 posted on 06/01/2009 9:32:15 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: Squidpup

The gods are not pleased.


15 posted on 06/01/2009 9:32:48 AM PDT by bgill (The evidence simply does not support the official position of the Obama administration)
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To: Squidpup

Now we know why they say to get out of the water when a storm moves in!


16 posted on 06/01/2009 9:33:34 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: Lazamataz
Lightning really pisses me off.

As long as you don't piss ON lightning...

17 posted on 06/01/2009 9:38:49 AM PDT by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
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To: Squidpup

Amazing, beautiful and scary all at the same time ;o)
Thanks for posting.


18 posted on 06/01/2009 9:46:25 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Squidpup

Is that a ship at the left of the pic?


19 posted on 06/01/2009 9:49:53 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money -- Thatcher)
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To: RichInOC

“Stoke on the water...fire in the sky...”


20 posted on 06/01/2009 9:53:46 AM PDT by Salamander (Cursed with Second Sight.)
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