Lightning-made Waves In Earth's Atmosphere Leak Into Space 72
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."
Re:Makes no sense (Score:5, 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.
Re:Makes no sense (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.
this is a (Score:5, Funny)
striking discovery
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Re:this is a (Score:4, Informative)
And "would have" would've been a better choice of words for you :)
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Using some flashy words there, I see...
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Naither, actually. It doesn't strike sixty miles up, and if it doesn't strike, no shock.
Yeah, yeah, woosh, I know...
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*cue sunglasses* yyyeeeeeaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Schumann ... (Score:3, Funny)
was a big proponent of cycles.
(If 2 people get this, I'll be impressed ; )
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7.8 Hz bitches.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann#Carnaval [wikipedia.org]
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Damn global warming!!!
The opposite, by definition.
Evanescent wave? (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...
but but but (Score:3, Funny)
You mean atmospheric models aren't perfect predictors of atmospheric phenomena? DENIERS!
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I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Leaking energy (Score:5, Interesting)
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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.
Class M Planet Discovery (Score:5, Interesting)
I suppose Schumann resonance occur on similar planets as well, and should be detectable.
exactly, brilliant (Score:3)
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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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.
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I believe there is lightning on Venus, Jupiter and several other bodies in the Solar System so theoretically you could detect it there as well.
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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.)
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Hz was around before the car rental, iinm. And it honors a great man. MCS confused me for a minute, I remember (dimly, I do remember being annoyed that thay changed Cycles Per Second to Hz). I would have caught mCS.
It leaks, Jim! (Score:2)
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.
Darn! There goes my plans to build Tesla's wireless power plant.
The frequencies (Score:5, Interesting)
According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], 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.
Re:The frequencies (Score:5, Informative)
33.8Hz can be picked up with the human ear. Mad Bass.
No it can't (Score:5, Informative)
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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But maybe they are more sensitive to changing magntic fields than to stationary fields.
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There is well over 10 distinctly separate senses in humans.
There is also the odd cases, such as human echolocation, which shows that it may well have been common in the ancestors we shared with dolphins.
Then there is the hypersensitive types, such as those supertasters. (not so much separate sense though)
Then there is the completely weird ones, such as the ability to see polarized light (I can), Haidinger's Brush I think is how it is spelled.
With the brush, it is believed that most people are actually capa
Re:No it can't (Score:4, Informative)
Your ears may not be able to detect these, but your computer's soundcard can [www.vlf.it]. It can also detect all sorts of other ELF transmissions. Check out http://www.vlf.it/ [www.vlf.it] - fascinating stuff!
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"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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Actually, the human ear could pick them all up with enough SPL IF they were pressure waves instead of EM.
The ear's sensitivity just decreases below ~20Hz, and it requires greater input to register the sound in your head.
With a couple of 15"s in an EBS configuration it is easy to get enough SPL to hear to ~15Hz in a normal sized room. Ask Tom Danley about 3Hz form his Sonic Boom Generator.
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Only if you have a reciever tuned to 33.8 Hz with great big speakers (you need a speaker capable of reproducing a tone that low, and few can). You can't hear EMF. ELFs are real, not just in Middle Earth! Most speakers, even the best, don't go down that far.
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"(you need a speaker capable of reproducing a tone that low, and few can"
Pretty much every modern headphone and multi-speaker tower out there has a response range with the low end starting ~20Hz.
Re:The frequencies (Score:5, Informative)
To add, 33.8 is a slightly sharp C1. It's about halfway between C1 and C#1 on the musical frequency scale.
Re:The frequencies (Score:5, Funny)
It's about halfway between C1 and C#1 on the musical frequency scale.
So, it's Java1?
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Yeah, and a green laser (532nm, 563THz) would be a slightly flat C44.
You might say it's too high for the human ear.
I might answer you can't hear electro-magnetic waves either, even at 440Hz.
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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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http://www.vlf.it/ [www.vlf.it] - all sorts of ways to receive ELF/VLF with a soundcard.
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/38567356/Circuit-schematic-and-technical-details-for-receiving-7-83hz-Schumann-frequencies [scribd.com]
http://www.backyardastronomy.net/schumann_resonance.html [backyardastronomy.net]
http://pe2bz.philpem.me.uk/Comm/-%20ELF-VLF/-%20-%20Projects/-%20Receiver/-%20E-Field-Whistler/S-000-Shumann-E-Field/p5.html [philpem.me.uk]
Prior Art (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
freqs (Score:1)
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The freq discussed here are not in the hertzian freq range, but much lower. More in the 6 - 8 cycles range
Hz = cps. 6-8 cycles = 6-8 Hz.
Exoplanet detection? (Score:1)