Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds

[tich]

Anyone else watch this tonight? Showed some weird lightning phenomena twice - firstly what lightning looks like when shown on ultra slow-motion camera (including some lightning that starts from the ground level - actually from structures like aerial masts), and later something called sprites, which look like huge flashes of sheet lightning high above thunderstorms, usually too brief for the human eye to glimpse except of occasion when the very brief flashes were mistaken for UFOs.

[Richard]

Yes i watched it also ,fantastic camera work in that programme,makes buying a HD TV worth while.

[Manukau heads obs]

good stuff , I like this program
(I missed the start, was at a meeting...)

[Dale]

Should be able to get it "on demand" Brian? The lightning stuff was right at the beginning with the sprites at the end.

What a fantastic series, I first saw it last week & completely forgot it was on last night, even the wife rugged up on the couch on her lappy doing her farmville stuff was watching with one eye glued & the eldest finally put down his PSP to sit with us & look. Very well put together & gives an amazing perspective on things we really dont see.. finally a show that makes you think!

On the subject of sprites however, I have been fortunate enough to witness the phenomena on more than 1 occasion. Looking out over the Pacific off the coast of South East Qld during a few monster storms way out in no mans land (water).. these huge plumes shooting god knows how high above the top of the cells themselves. It is a sight to behold if youre lucky enough to witness it.

{Ed:} As an indication, I would have put the tops of these storms between 30-45,000 ft (in the case of the big one) but these things were just over 2 to sometimes 3x the height again.. so were talking 90-135,000 feet up!!

[Tornado Tim]

Yes I agree, its a fantastic series, the sprites part was amazing where they chased some Arkansas thunderstorms in a plane to capture and study sprites .

Also as a side note I couldn't believe how the bumblebee curves its wings to keep it up in the air, truly fascinating stuff.

[Dale]

LOL Tim, yes we all pee'd ourselves laughing at that, said it was the "wright flyer" of the insect world.

[NZstorm]

I enjoyed the bit about upside down lightning... I'm sure the Auckland sky tower generates this type of lightning.

quote from Hammond

"this strange, upside-down lightning is powerful. It carries more charge than normal lightning. But what's really extraordinary is that upward lightning is created by us. it's these tall transmission towers that are triggering the vast bolts of lightning firing up into the clouds. As we build more tall buildings, this new form of lightning is spreading across the world. "