High-speed plasma imaging: a lightning bolt

Author

Wurden, Glen A. ; Whiteson, D.O.

Author_Institution

Los Alamos Nat. Lab., NM, USA

Volume

24

Issue

1

fYear

1996

fDate

2/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

83

Lastpage

84

Abstract

Using a gated intensified digital Kodak Ektapro camera system, we captured a lightning bolt at 1000 frames per second, with 100-μs exposure time on each consecutive frame. As a thunder storm approached while darkness descended (7:50 pm) on July 21, 1994, we photographed lightning bolts with an f22 105-mm lens and 100% gain on the intensified camera. This 15-frame sequence shows a cloud to ground stroke at a distance of about 1.5 km, which has a series of stepped leaders propagating downwards, followed by the upward-propagating main return stroke

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; lightning; photography; plasma diagnostics; thunderstorms; 1.5 km; 1000 frames per second; cloud to ground stroke; darkness; f22 105-mm lens; gated intensified digital Kodak Ektapro camera system; high-speed plasma imaging; lightning bolt; photography; thunder storm; upward-propagating main return stroke; Digital cameras; Fasteners; Image storage; Instruments; Lightning; Optical films; Plasma applications; Poles and towers; Storms; Tokamaks;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.491702

Filename

491702