Several lightning bolts on top of buildings try to connect with the lightning falling from the sky.
Researchers used a camera that records at 40,000 frames per second to take a new photo that reveals how the lightning rod behaves.
The stunning image shows the moment multiple lightning bolts attempt to connect with lightning thundering down from the sky above.
Marcelo Saba, researcher at Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE), and Ph.D. candidate Diego Rahomonn was lucky enough to have set up his camera in exactly the right place to capture the image for his research paper.
“The photo was taken on a summer evening in São José dos Campos [Brazil] while a negatively charged lightning bolt approached the ground at 230 miles (370 kilometers) per second,” Saba explains in a press release.
“When it was a few dozen meters from ground level, lightning rods and tall objects on top of nearby buildings produced upward positive discharges, which competed to connect with the downward impact.
“The last image before the connection was taken 25 thousandths of a second before the lightning struck one of the buildings.”
The image is actually taken from a video, recorded at 40.00 frames per second, and when played back in slow motion (above) it shows that the lightning actually connects to a chimney on top of one of the buildings and not one of the buildings. 30 lightning conductors that are nearby.
“An error in the installation left the area unprotected. The impact of a 30,000 amp discharge did enormous damage,” adds Saba.
The buildings in Brazil observed by the high-speed camera.
On average, 20% of all lightning strikes involve an exchange of electrical discharges between clouds and the ground, while the other 80% occur within clouds.
Upward strokes also occur but are rare and begin at the top of tall structures such as mountains, skyscrapers, towers and antennas.
“Lightning strikes can be as long as 60 miles (100 kilometers) and carry currents as strong as 30,000 amperes, which is equivalent to the current used simultaneously by 30,000 100-watt light bulbs,” says Saba.
“In some cases, the current can reach 300,000 amperes. The temperature of a typical lightning strike is 30,000 degrees Celsius, five times the surface temperature of the sun.”
Image Credits: Photo by Diego Rhamon/INPE.