Lightning with Recoil Leaders

[Carey Walton]

I was just about ready to call it a day with a small thunderstorm near Cedar Point west of Limon, CO when this happened. I guess that I pressed the shutter at just the right time to capture these recoil leaders. When I first looked at this image, I had never seen anything quite like this, but a little research points to recoil leaders. There are at least 6 recoil leaders visible in this image and they have tiny fingers fanning out on each end. It also seems consistent with some of the high speed videos that are so amazing. Anyone know more about this kind of thing?

There are a few larger and zoomed views in "Gallery 0 - Latest Photos" at:

http://lightningskies.com

 

[Vicky Redwood]

That's a great set of pictures, I can't add anything scientific to your post but its amazing to see that fraction of a second of the bolt's life.

 

[Dan Robinson]

This is an amazing shot (that is an understatement), congratulations! I've never seen anything like this before. Apparently the mid-air leaders were propagating in both directions, as they have branching in opposite directions at their ends. I have also not seen a photo with so many upward leaders from the ground.

What were the details of this photo? Was it a long exposure with the strike happening right at the end or at the beginning?

 

[Brian Emfinger]

Wow, I've never seen/got anything like that either. You got the still version of this (from the first search under google of recoil leaders =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y4an99MBGk

Great Picture!

 

[Jeff Smith]

That is amazing!! Great catch, Carey!!

 

[L.B. LaForce]

Wow! that is an amazing picture. I went to your site, and also spotted the streamers coming up from teh ground, that is just incredible.

 

[Carey Walton]

This is an amazing shot (that is an understatement), congratulations! I've never seen anything like this before. Apparently the mid-air leaders were propagating in both directions, as they have branching in opposite directions at their ends. I have also not seen a photo with so many upward leaders from the ground.

What were the details of this photo? Was it a long exposure with the strike happening right at the end or at the beginning?

This happened just as I opened the shutter for the last shot of the day. Needless to day, it scared the $#*%! out of me. I grabbed the camera off of the mount and set it in the seat to cover the front of the lens as the shutter was still open. It was totally dark then, but it did barely pick up the only light source which was a red LED under the dash. If you look carefully around the brightest recoil leader, you can see a slight red trace. The exposure was 30 sec. @ f5.6. The camera was a Nikon D200 with a 50mm f1.4 lens.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I'm wondering if they are recoil leaders or if they are actually conventional leaders initiating on some sort of nucleus (particles) in mid-air, with simultaneous upward and downward propagation. In other words, similar to the upward leaders from the ground except initiating in mid-air off of a raindrop or dust particle. The famous video of the Japanese 747 jet getting struck exhibited this mid-air bi-directional initiation, with upward and downward branching on either end of the aircraft.

From Tom Warner's videos, the recoil leaders seem to retrace a previously 'blazed' channel, in which case the leader head should be branchless, like a dart leader. In this case, the leader heads are branched at both ends, which suggests they are not retracing a channel but rather propagating a new one.

Either way, this is something that I have never seen before and I would venture to guess that the most seasoned lightning researchers have never seen either! Incredible stuff.

 

[Ken Langford]

Amazing Shot!

I was just about ready to call it a day with a small thunderstorm near Cedar Point west of Limon, CO when this happened. I guess that I pressed the shutter at just the right time to capture these recoil leaders. When I first looked at this image, I had never seen anything quite like this, but a little research points to recoil leaders. There are at least 6 recoil leaders visible in this image and they have tiny fingers fanning out on each end. It also seems consistent with some of the high speed videos that are so amazing. Anyone know more about this kind of thing?

There are a few larger and zoomed views in "Gallery 0 - Latest Photos" at:

http://lightningskies.com

Hi Carey,

Wow, this is certainly the grail for lightning photographers everywhere! Very nice shot! Can you please tell us the date this image was captured?

In this photo I count 8 "self-propagating upward moving unconnected leaders," otherwise commonly called "streamers." I do not believe these are "recoil leaders" which I think are much larger in scale. Previously, the photo with the highest number of streamers adjacent to a single ground point is the image from the Novohradské Mountains, Český Krumlov Region in the Czech Republic by Marek Pecka from July 20, 2007:

http://ukazy.astro.cz/gal/20070720MarekPecka-lightning-strike_blesk2a.jpg

We can see five streamers in this amazing photo.

If you will give me permission, I will upload a Photoshop version of the detail in your image to show where I see the eight streamers.

For those who are unfamiliar with streamers, they are upward moving discharges induced by the intense electrical field of the approaching downward propagating lightning leader. In recent high speed videos one can see that most (if not all) downward propagating leaders make a connection to upward propagating streamers. This "final jump" is called the Breakthrough Phase, where the two plasma channels (upward and downward) are connected like the closing of a switch. This then initiates the return stroke. Your image is particularly interesting because there are three points in the main channel where there appear to be remnants of three "connected" streamers. If one were to count those, this brings the total to eleven streamers!

Again, my congratulations on a spectacular and scientifically significant image!

Ken

 

[Carey Walton]

Hi Carey,

Wow, this is certainly the grail for lightning photographers everywhere! Very nice shot! Can you please tell us the date this image was captured?

In this photo I count 8 "self-propagating upward moving unconnected leaders," otherwise commonly called "streamers." I do not believe these are "recoil leaders" which I think are much larger in scale. Previously, the photo with the highest number of streamers adjacent to a single ground point is the image from the Novohradské Mountains, Český Krumlov Region in the Czech Republic by Marek Pecka from July 20, 2007:

http://ukazy.astro.cz/gal/20070720MarekPecka-lightning-strike_blesk2a.jpg

We can see five streamers in this amazing photo.

If you will give me permission, I will upload a Photoshop version of the detail in your image to show where I see the eight streamers.

For those who are unfamiliar with streamers, they are upward moving discharges induced by the intense electrical field of the approaching downward propagating lightning leader. In recent high speed videos one can see that most (if not all) downward propagating leaders make a connection to upward propagating streamers. This "final jump" is called the Breakthrough Phase, where the two plasma channels (upward and downward) are connected like the closing of a switch. This then initiates the return stroke. Your image is particularly interesting because there are three points in the main channel where there appear to be remnants of three "connected" streamers. If one were to count those, this brings the total to eleven streamers!

Again, my congratulations on a spectacular and scientifically significant image!

Ken

The image was shot on 6/20/08. It sounds like you may have missed the original set of images because while thoroughly messing up my website, I lost and forgot about the links. Everything is working now.

At LightningSkies.com, the home page tells the story. There are 2 sidebar pictures, one which shows the streamers coming up from the ground, and the other which shows what I thought might be "Recoil Leaders". These the the strange luminous segments hanging in mid air and have tiny fingers fanning out on each end, downward on the bottom end and upward on the top end, as if propagating in both directions from the center. Dan Robinson also posted some interesting ideas about what they may be in an earlier post in this thread. There are also about 8 of these visible in this image, and look like what was refered to as "Recoil Leaders" in the hi-speed videos by ztreasearch .

A direct link to LightningSkies - Gallery 0 shows some additional zoomed in views showing both the streamers and recoil leaders.

Another unexplained feature is the little ball about midway and left of the main channel. It's about 10 pixels in diameter and if it's near the main channel,that would make it about the size of a tennis ball or a grapefruit. There was not a hint of any rain at the time this was shot, and it shows no motion unlike a falling raindrop and is also much brighter than a raindrop would be. I really don't have any explanation for that one either.

 

[Jason Foster]

.....Another unexplained feature is the little ball about midway and left of the main channel. It's about 10 pixels in diameter and if it's near the main channel,that would make it about the size of a tennis ball or a grapefruit. There was not a hint of any rain at the time this was shot, and it shows no motion unlike a falling raindrop and is also much brighter than a raindrop would be. I really don't have any explanation for that one either.

Since I don't believe in Ball lighting...and I've commonly run across similar things in my shots, I would say it is possibly a radio tower's light. Although only one light is visible, and with many taller towers there are two or three lights. I would say this is the best, most likely answer. If you know exactly where you shot it...then it is easy to check in the FCC database for registered towers, or FAA for towers over 200 feet.

 

[Carey Walton]

Ken, please feel free to post your photoshop version. You have my permission.

 

[Ken Langford]

The image was shot on 6/20/08. It sounds like you may have missed the original set of images because while thoroughly messing up my website, I lost and forgot about the links. Everything is working now.

At LightningSkies.com, the home page tells the story. There are 2 sidebar pictures, one which shows the streamers coming up from the ground, and the other which shows what I thought might be "Recoil Leaders". These the the strange luminous segments hanging in mid air and have tiny fingers fanning out on each end, downward on the bottom end and upward on the top end, as if propagating in both directions from the center. Dan Robinson also posted some interesting ideas about what they may be in an earlier post in this thread. There are also about 8 of these visible in this image, and look like what was refered to as "Recoil Leaders" in the hi-speed videos by ztreasearch .

A direct link to LightningSkies - Gallery 0 shows some additional zoomed in views showing both the streamers and recoil leaders.

Another unexplained feature is the little ball about midway and left of the main channel. It's about 10 pixels in diameter and if it's near the main channel,that would make it about the size of a tennis ball or a grapefruit. There was not a hint of any rain at the time this was shot, and it shows no motion unlike a falling raindrop and is also much brighter than a raindrop would be. I really don't have any explanation for that one either.

Ah, OK. I got so hung up on the streamers by the attachment to ground that I did not really look at the other higher artifacts. At first I assumed these to be distant lightning flashes, but now that I look more closely I agree that these are probably Recoil Leaders. This is the picture that keeps on giving! As for the luminous glow, I am at a loss. I do have a video clip showing similar glowing blobs, but there are many of them, and the scale of the video suggests if this were the same thing it would be larger. In the video these behaved like "displaced beads," isolated from the channel, but decaying like bead lightning.

I will attempt to post your photo ath this url later tonight:

http://home.comcast.net/~mrrandom/Walton.html

Hope all are well!

Ken

 

[Ken Langford]

Photo

The attached photo shows the detail at the base of the flash. The white arrows are unattached streamers, and the black arrows are attachments with visible upward components.

Please ignore the previous URL.

Ken

 

[Wes Carter]

Since I don't believe in Ball lighting...and I've commonly run across similar things in my shots, I would say it is possibly a radio tower's light. Although only one light is visible, and with many taller towers there are two or three lights. I would say this is the best, most likely answer. If you know exactly where you shot it...then it is easy to check in the FCC database for registered towers, or FAA for towers over 200 feet.

If I read it right he took the photo in the vehicle, I'm assuming through the windshield. If it was, he keeps his winshield cleaner than I do. But that point of light could be a single drop of rain on the glass with the lightning shining through it.

Awesome photo by the way.