Dark Lightning: US Navy To Investigate Potentially-Dangerous Radiation Bursts / General Chatting / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Chatting

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Dark Lightning: US Navy To Investigate Potentially-Dangerous Radiation Bursts

Move Thread

LAN_403

Ash Small

Tue Jun 25 2013, 11:36AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

The US Navy is to investigate the mysterious - and potentially dangerous - phenomenon of 'dark lightning', which could be exposing air passengers to powerful bursts of radiation during storms.

Lightening is caused by the interaction of charged particles in the atmosphere, created during violent winds.

When lightning strikes, the vast amounts of electrical energy stored in the clouds are released in sharp, intense bursts - which, helpfully, we can see. So far, so familiar.

But back in 2010 Nasa discovered - by accident - that it's not just visible electrical energy which is created and released in this way, but also intense bursts of radiation.

This so-called 'dark lightning' - consisting of surprisingly powerful gamma rays more usually released by stars in deep space - can also be generated and sent out in wide, strong bursts during a storm.

Discovered by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Nasa thinks these flashes are potentially dangerous. If one struck an aeroplane in mid-air, it's possible that passengers could be exposed to the maximum safe lifetime dose of ionising radiation in an instant.

Without radiation detectors, it would be impossible to tell if a plane had been hit - passengers wouldn't see or even feel anything.

Fortunately dark lightning appears to be rare - about one burst per thousand regular strikes of lightning. But the US Navy wants to look into it further, and has launched a study to nail down just how dangerous dark lightning might be.

The US Naval Research Laboratory has said it will use its SoftWare for the Optimisation of Radiation Detectors (SWORD) to model the phenomenon in an effort to understand how powerful and regular they might be. They will use the Calorimeter aboard Fermi to locate flashes of dark lightning, and then calculate the radiation dosage.

The team is also building detectors that it can send up on high-altitude balloons, to further test the gamma-ray bursts first hand.

Thomas W

Tue Jun 25 2013, 12:04PM

Registered Member #3324 Joined: Sun Oct 17 2010, 06:57PM
Location:
Posts: 1276

Interesting... but should we really worry that much, for some reason i can see in the future:

"Scientists suggest that living may cause a more painful death, studys suggest on average a state controlled mandatory death at 45 will prevent 85% of painful deaths"

Ash Small

Tue Jun 25 2013, 12:46PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Well I don't fly anyway.

It's an interesting phenomenon, though.

Patrick

Tue Jun 25 2013, 02:50PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

a fleet of drones could investigate close-up, the likely sites predicted my longer range instruments. the ocean (pacific maybe) would probly be the best "test-site" for this investigation...

Conundrum

Wed Jun 26 2013, 05:01AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

I've actually detected a TGF, on one occasion.
My GM counters (both the fridge and window one) detected simultaneous counts just after one of the larger flashes, and there was a slight background increase during that time period.. !
Counter on window used an SBM21 tube overdriven to 550V, counter in fridge used the standard dosimeter one.
I'd also modified the window one to screen out EMI.

-A

Proud Mary

Wed Jun 26 2013, 01:40PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

Simultaneous observations of optical lightning and terrestrial gamma ray flash from space

Patrick

Thu Jun 27 2013, 03:28AM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Proud Mary wrote ...

Simultaneous observations of optical lightning and terrestrial gamma ray flash from space

Fascinating!!!

Proud Mary, its also interesting that the two satellites at 300 km have uncertainty intervals on the dozens of mS order, yet the terrestrial VLF instruments, thousands of km away are on the order of dozens of uS of uncertainty!

I wonder if these events may have influenced (read this as beneficial or harmful, either way) past earth life (or exo-planets).... earths atmosphere hasn't been static or friendly through the eons.

Conundrum

Thu Jun 27 2013, 07:17AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Its certainly possible Patrick.
Maybe the "missing link" in the infamous nucleotide generating spark chamber experiment was low level X-ray bursts?
-A

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob