Due to the telephone ringing and the neighbours burglar alarm going
off, I missed the conclusion of the programme. What was the
conclusion about the Shuttle being struck by Megalightning on that
fatefull Sunday morning?

I found the balance of science and talking heads, together with lots
of pictures one of the better 'weather' related programmes I've seen
for some time.

Keith (Southend)

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On Wed, 26 May 2004 22:31:13 +0100, "Keith (Southend)"
wrote:

Due to the telephone ringing and the neighbours burglar alarm going
off, I missed the conclusion of the programme. What was the
conclusion about the Shuttle being struck by Megalightning on that
fatefull Sunday morning?

I found the balance of science and talking heads, together with lots
of pictures one of the better 'weather' related programmes I've seen
for some time.

Keith (Southend)


Bugger! I missed it. Being in a household of 4 as the only male I would
probably have been outvoted due to episodes of ER and that inane Gordon Ramsay
thing.

Did anyone make a DivX or MP4 recording they could put up?

JPG

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There was a lot of buzz on the internet about that picture taken by an
amateur astronomer in San Francisco, do a search for "Columbia" and
"purple streak" and you'll see all sorts of crazy theories. It was
pretty much dismissed by the "Experts" on the programm as camera shake,
but it certainly doesnt look like it to me, as the line left by the
shuttle itself as it passed through the frame remains perfectly
straight. If it was camera shake it would have shown an identical
squiggle in line with the purple streak.

It could have been some kind of debris shedding event, although none of
the other shedding events caught on camera look like it. Also, it might
have been some unusual discharge associated with the flow of plasma
around the shuttle, examination of the debris indicate the wing had
started to deform and change the normal flow and pattern.

Bugger! I missed it
Me too.Don't worry ,knowing CH5 it'll be along again soon,prob after "Where Eagles Dare" for the
umpteenth.........

Rash to comment without seeing,but it wld pay researchers to talk up the aircraft hazard angle to
get the funds,

--
regards,
david
(add 17 to waghorne to reply)

In message 4Xitc.50$%31.43@newsfe1-win, sunimage
writes
There was a lot of buzz on the internet about that picture taken by an
amateur astronomer in San Francisco, do a search for "Columbia" and
"purple streak" and you'll see all sorts of crazy theories. It was
pretty much dismissed by the "Experts" on the programm as camera shake,
but it certainly doesnt look like it to me, as the line left by the
shuttle itself as it passed through the frame remains perfectly
straight. If it was camera shake it would have shown an identical
squiggle in line with the purple streak.

I am inclined to agree. The jagged line it took also appeared sharper
than the main shuttle trail (not usually a characteristic of camera
shake). It would be more consistent with a lightning flash discharge.

It could have been some kind of debris shedding event, although none of
the other shedding events caught on camera look like it. Also, it
might have been some unusual discharge associated with the flow of
plasma around the shuttle, examination of the debris indicate the wing
had started to deform and change the normal flow and pattern.

Friction can under some situations generate electrical charge separation
so I don't see why they are so keen to discount out of hand what is
clearly a decent observation with photographic support.

The overall breathless presentation and hype through the rest of the
programme was somewhat irritating. Megahype. Whatever happened to decent
science broadcasting?

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...

off, I missed the conclusion of the programme. What was the
conclusion about the Shuttle being struck by Megalightning on that
fatefull Sunday morning?

Hi Keith,

They went on to discuss theories of upper atmosphere lightning and showed
how meteors which enter the ionosphere are struck by "lightning" due to the
heat given off, they asked whether due to the intense heat of the shuttle on
re-entry, that it was in effect a "meteorite" and therefore struck in the
same way? They showed footage of inside the craft as it descended with the
glowing colours outside and the actual moment inside when the pictures froze
as the craft broke up, quite humbling to watch.

The guy with that huge microphone showed records which tied in with the
shuttle explosion and said that the sound waves were equivalent of an upper
air earthquake which backed up the lightning theory once again as the timing
and location were virtually the same.

I thought it was an excellent programme, just the right balance of science
and information and some stunning videos of "sprites". For those who didn't
know, they mentioned that the Columbia was actually doing lots of obs from
space watching this megalightning and sprites, much of the data they
captured was destroyed in the crash.

Hope they repeat it, worth even a second watch.

A

Thankyou Andrew.

Keith (Southend)

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On Thu, 27 May 2004 17:47:22 +0000 (UTC), "Andrew Bond"
wrote:


"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
.. .

off, I missed the conclusion of the programme. What was the
conclusion about the Shuttle being struck by Megalightning on that
fatefull Sunday morning?

Hi Keith,

They went on to discuss theories of upper atmosphere lightning and showed
how meteors which enter the ionosphere are struck by "lightning" due to the
heat given off, they asked whether due to the intense heat of the shuttle on
re-entry, that it was in effect a "meteorite" and therefore struck in the
same way? They showed footage of inside the craft as it descended with the
glowing colours outside and the actual moment inside when the pictures froze
as the craft broke up, quite humbling to watch.

The guy with that huge microphone showed records which tied in with the
shuttle explosion and said that the sound waves were equivalent of an upper
air earthquake which backed up the lightning theory once again as the timing
and location were virtually the same.

I thought it was an excellent programme, just the right balance of science
and information and some stunning videos of "sprites". For those who didn't
know, they mentioned that the Columbia was actually doing lots of obs from
space watching this megalightning and sprites, much of the data they
captured was destroyed in the crash.

Hope they repeat it, worth even a second watch.

A

They went on to discuss theories .......
OT & BTW Does anybody know if any of this is addressed in the CAIB report-
http://www.caib.us/
and where (as the document is large).
Google brings up loads of stuff but it's hard to sift sense from nonsense.
Is there anything peer reviewed or authoritative ?

--
regards,
david
(add 17 to waghorne to reply)

In article 4Xitc.50$%31.43@newsfe1-win, says...
There was a lot of buzz on the internet about that picture taken by an
amateur astronomer in San Francisco, do a search for "Columbia" and
"purple streak" and you'll see all sorts of crazy theories. It was
pretty much dismissed by the "Experts" on the programm as camera shake,
but it certainly doesnt look like it to me, as the line left by the
shuttle itself as it passed through the frame remains perfectly
straight. If it was camera shake it would have shown an identical
squiggle in line with the purple streak.


I thought it looked a little like camera shake. Remember that it was an
8 second time lapse and the white line was itself a genuine white line
across the sky.

If we assume that the shuttle was inside the field of view when the
shutter was opened then we should have two brightnesses of line within
the photograph. The dimmer part of the line would show the contrail
only, and then there would be a brighter part of the line showing the
contrail /and/ the bright emission of the plasma at the front of the
shuttle.

The photograph shown did have two such brightnesses of line, and not
surprisingly the purple streak joined the white line at precisely the
point where the line became bright.

I propose that the purple streak is the point at which the shutter is
opened and therefore, the point at which camera shake is most likely.
The purple streak is the bright plasma field of the shuttle during the
shake, the dimmer white trail to the left is an 8 second exposure of the
contrail and the brighter line to the right is contrail and plasma
field.

It /does/ look like camera shake.

--
Alan LeHun
Is brightnesses a real word?