by AVAO » Sun Sep 24, 2023 7:04 am
johnnydeep wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 5:09 pm
Roy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 3:09 pm
It is good to have terrestrial objects in the picture for scale and contrast, especially if they are in the same realm, electrical in this case. The slow motion video of a sprite shows downward strikes ionizing pathways for large upward strikes which spray out and dissipate charge high in the mesosphere, traveling back and forth hundreds of kilometers in less than a quarter of a second.
By contrast, the tree has used the chemicals and electrons and millivolts of cell life to lift and extend itself from the earth over time measured in hundreds of years, recharging from sunlight daily, consuming the 4 hundredths of one percent carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and returning its share of the 21 percent of oxygen to the atmosphere for our (animal and insect) use.
One thing visibly absent from the APOD image, and not explicitly mentioned in your pleasing metaphor is the particular role that the roots of the tree play. Just as the downward activity of the sprite components give rise to the upward activity, so too does the growth of the roots of a tree enable the air bound portion to proliferate. I'm sure this analogy has flaws, but it's still nice.
sprites.png
I like your comparison. Most plants and trees are also creatures that alternate between two "mediums": earth and air. Their "drive" could also be viewed as a somewhat more complicated form of solar-pulsed voltage compensation. The sprites have their roots in the mesoshere and the branches in the ionosphere, which creates a different structure and plasma color due to the different chemical and physical conditions. The phase breakdown (short circuit) is always channeled via a central plasma channel which then disperses on both sides in the respective media field. Sprites, lightning and probably also volcanoes and sunspots work according to the same basic principle.
...Trees just make the whole thing a little slower, more controlled and more sustainable ,-)
Jac
P.S.: If the ionosphere (your ground level) starts at 80 km, the sprite in the APOD should be around 60 km tall, which is more than six times the height of the Mount Everest - means sprites are gigantic.
[quote=johnnydeep post_id=333857 time=1695056992 user_id=132061]
[quote=Roy post_id=333856 time=1695049775]
It is good to have terrestrial objects in the picture for scale and contrast, especially if they are in the same realm, electrical in this case. The slow motion video of a sprite shows downward strikes ionizing pathways for large upward strikes which spray out and dissipate charge high in the mesosphere, traveling back and forth hundreds of kilometers in less than a quarter of a second.
By contrast, the tree has used the chemicals and electrons and millivolts of cell life to lift and extend itself from the earth over time measured in hundreds of years, recharging from sunlight daily, consuming the 4 hundredths of one percent carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and returning its share of the 21 percent of oxygen to the atmosphere for our (animal and insect) use.
[/quote]
One thing visibly absent from the APOD image, and not explicitly mentioned in your pleasing metaphor is the particular role that the roots of the tree play. Just as the downward activity of the sprite components give rise to the upward activity, so too does the growth of the roots of a tree enable the air bound portion to proliferate. I'm sure this analogy has flaws, but it's still nice. :ssmile:
sprites.png
[/quote]
I like your comparison. Most plants and trees are also creatures that alternate between two "mediums": earth and air. Their "drive" could also be viewed as a somewhat more complicated form of solar-pulsed voltage compensation. The sprites have their roots in the mesoshere and the branches in the ionosphere, which creates a different structure and plasma color due to the different chemical and physical conditions. The phase breakdown (short circuit) is always channeled via a central plasma channel which then disperses on both sides in the respective media field. Sprites, lightning and probably also volcanoes and sunspots work according to the same basic principle.
...Trees just make the whole thing a little slower, more controlled and more sustainable ,-)
Jac
P.S.: If the ionosphere (your ground level) starts at 80 km, the sprite in the APOD should be around 60 km tall, which is more than six times the height of the Mount Everest - means sprites are gigantic.