Expanding Hydroxyl Rings Above a Thunderstorm

Time lapse photography (speed-up factor of 300 over real time) of hydroxyl (OH) airglow emissions high above a distant thunderstorm. The airglow is from a chemical reaction involving ozone and atomic hydrogen at an altitude of ~87 km. The nighttime near-infrared (0.7-1.0 micron) observations were made from New Mexico Tech's Langmuir Laboratory (33.976N, 107.181W) near Socorro, NM. The view is looking eastward toward a thunderstorm below the horizon, about ~500 km away in Texas. The lower foreground of the scene shows traffic on US highway 380. The expanding circular rings are caused by gravity waves created by the pumping action of the convective core of the underlying thunderstorm.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• thunderstorm
• airglow

[VirgiltheDarkSlayer]

The HIghway traffic point out was cute, very cute indeed. XD

[auto9898]

Wow. Great video. I never knew about this.