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Lightning-made Waves In Earth's Atmosphere Leak Into Space

TheNextCorner sends this quote from NASA: "At any given moment about 2,000 thunderstorms roll over Earth, producing some 50 flashes of lightning every second. Each lightning burst creates electromagnetic waves that begin to circle around Earth, captured between Earth's surface and a boundary about 60 miles up. Some of the waves – if they have just the right wavelength – combine, increasing in strength, to create a repeating atmospheric heartbeat known as Schumann resonance. ... NASA's Vector Electric Field Instrument aboard the U.S. Air Force's Communications/Navigation Outage Forecast System satellite has detected Schumann resonance from space. This comes as a surprise, since current models of Schumann resonance predict these waves should be caged at lower altitude, between the ground and a layer of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere."

23 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. this is a by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    striking discovery

    1. Re:this is a by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      And "would have" would've been a better choice of words for you :)

  2. Schumann ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    was a big proponent of cycles.

    (If 2 people get this, I'll be impressed ; )

  3. Evanescent wave? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Is this just picking up an evanescent wave on a really large scale or is the radiation actually getting away from the planet? An evanescent wave is the optical equivalent of tunneling...

  4. but but but by heinousjay · · Score: 3, Funny

    You mean atmospheric models aren't perfect predictors of atmospheric phenomena? DENIERS!

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  5. Leaking energy by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is this like other waveguide phenomena, where the first or second-order approximation says the energy vanishes exponentially within a fraction of a wavelength around the waveguide, but if you don't want your radar set (or microwave oven) to explode, you still need to invest heavily in ventilation and/or liquid cooling?

    1. Re:Leaking energy by noelhenson · · Score: 2

      Actually the ionosphere forms both a waveguide and a capacitor with the Earth itself. Changes in potential, even in waveguide scenarios, will still radiate out into space.

  6. Re:Makes no sense by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, it's not so much the wind escaping the chamber, more along the lines of the sound making it out. The only thing "getting out" is electromagnetic waves - and to be honest, I am surprised that the atmosphere actually keeps most of them in. If you think about it, I guess is makes sense, given you can bounce radio signals off the atmosphere to get the signal past the horizon and such - but I was just surprised that electromagnetic waves from lightning get caught inside our atmosphere.

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  7. Class M Planet Discovery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I suppose Schumann resonance occur on similar planets as well, and should be detectable.

    1. Re:Class M Planet Discovery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Electromagnetic pulses from Jupiter can be detected in the Amateur 15 Meter Band, approx 21 Mcs (No damn hertz for me. That's a car rental company. Been banging out CW since I wuz a kid, and I ain't a kid no more.)

  8. exactly, brilliant by circletimessquare · · Score: 2

    how far away is this detectable? this may be how you find other earth-like blue orbs

    until of course, they find the liquid ammonia planet that schumann resonates like nobody's business, populated by little mr. cleans and scrubbing bubbles i suppose

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    1. Re:exactly, brilliant by BradleyUffner · · Score: 3, Informative

      how far away is this detectable? this may be how you find other earth-like blue orbs

      until of course, they find the liquid ammonia planet that schumann resonates like nobody's business, populated by little mr. cleans and scrubbing bubbles i suppose

      My guess is, that since it's eletromagentic, it follows the inverse-square law.

  9. Re:Makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, it's not so much the wind escaping the chamber, more along the lines of the sound making it out. The only thing "getting out" is electromagnetic waves - and to be honest, I am surprised that the atmosphere actually keeps most of them in. If you think about it, I guess is makes sense, given you can bounce radio signals off the atmosphere to get the signal past the horizon and such - but I was just surprised that electromagnetic waves from lightning get caught inside our atmosphere.

    You can hear them on your radio around 2-3mhz.

  10. The frequencies by IceFoot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to Wikipedia, the resonances occur at extremely low frequencies (ELF) around 7.83 (fundamental), 14.3, 20.8, 27.3 and 33.8 Hz. That's Hertz, not megaHertz. Now, how can we tune them in? I, for one, do not own a radio that can receive those frequencies.

    1. Re:The frequencies by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

      33.8Hz can be picked up with the human ear. Mad Bass.

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    2. Re:The frequencies by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

      To add, 33.8 is a slightly sharp C1. It's about halfway between C1 and C#1 on the musical frequency scale.

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    3. Re:The frequencies by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's about halfway between C1 and C#1 on the musical frequency scale.

      So, it's Java1?

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    4. Re:The frequencies by Khyber · · Score: 2

      We have plenty of software that can allow us to 'hear' things.

      This is how I hunt for exoplanets. I take the Kepler data, input the plotted brightness measurements, assign each area a musical note, and then LISTEN to it.

      Much easier to listen for a pattern like this than to look for it amongst seemingly random noise.

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  11. Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The so-called discovered phenomenon is precisely what Tesla was using in the 1890s to transmit power. He also said that he had bounced signals off the moon using the same method. Thunderstorms were exactly the method he used to discover that the electrical standing waves existed around the Earth- his detectors showed that the signals from lightning emitted by storms got quiter as they travelled away, then louder again, as the storm passed along the peak and trough of a wave and thus attenuated the signal in his detector. He used this discovery to calculate how the earth and atmosphere could be used as an immense capacitor and power pumped into it, and could be picked up by an appropriately tuned receiver anywhere on the earth with transmission losses of between 1-5%. At the time it was like voodoo magic- now we know it as simple high voltage/high frequency alternating current. Get the numbers right and its not very hard.

  12. No it can't by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 5, Informative

    It can't pick up these waves, because the human ear picks up sound, not magnetic waves. There are some bones in your sinuses that are magnetoceptic, but studies have yet to get detailed. It's such a rudimentary sense that you are barely able to pick up the magnetic north with it, so it's highly questionable that you'd be able to pick up rapidly alternating differences in magnetic fields.

    It is however proven that these magnetoceptic bones are a real human sense. So yes, there's at least a sixth sense there. Oh, for that matter, totally off topic, your balance sense (inner ear) also counts, so make that a seventh, or an eighth, if you count the receptors for pheromones in your nasal cavity as well (debatable, since it's a form of smell, just not consciously perceived).

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    1. Re:No it can't by Muad'Dave · · Score: 3, Informative

      Your ears may not be able to detect these, but your computer's soundcard can. It can also detect all sorts of other ELF transmissions. Check out http://www.vlf.it/ - fascinating stuff!

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    2. Re:No it can't by Khyber · · Score: 2

      "It's such a rudimentary sense that you are barely able to pick up the magnetic north with it"

      Actually, I have no issues doing that totally blindfolded. I have a very strong innate sense of direction, even with the disadvantage of suffering from BPPV.

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