Lightning Catatumbo
The Venezuelan municipality of Catatumbo (North Santander department) has proclaimed its territory the "World Capital of Lightning". Local authorities made this announcement following the Guinness Book of World Records that the Catatumbo region has the highest concentration of atmospheric electrical discharges in the world - 250 per year per square kilometer.
Scientists have calculated that in the valley of the Catatumbo River, which flows into Lake Maracaibo, the number of lightnings per year exceeds a million. Previously, sailors called this amazing natural phenomenon the Catatumbo Lighthouse, since continuous lightning strikes are visible at a distance of up to 400 kilometers.
Such an incredible amount of lightning is explained by a unique combination of natural factors. Located next to Lake Maracaibo, the Andes mountain range with a height of up to 5 kilometers blocks the winds and due to this abundant evaporation from the surface of the lake forms huge clouds elongated upward. Due to almost continuous lightning strikes for 140-160 nights a year, Katatumbo is called a natural ozone factory: myriads of electrical discharges emit into the atmosphere up to 10% of the total volume of the Earth's triatomic oxygen.
Halo
Halo - (a circle, disk or halo in translation from Greek) - this is the name of a group of optical phenomena in the atmosphere that arise as a result of the refraction and reflection of light by ice crystals that form cirrus clouds and fogs.
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Halo phenomena are very diverse: they look like rainbow (when refracted) and white (when reflected) stripes, spots, arcs and circles on the firmament. When observing a halo, it is necessary to cover the sun with some object or at least with a hand, so as not to spoil the eyes (in most cases, it is also advisable to cover the sun during photography). It is advisable to wear dark glasses, since individual elements of the halo are dazzlingly bright.
There are even signs associated with the Halo: a halo is visible around the Sun or Moon (a sign of worsening weather); in winter - white crowns of large diameter around the Sun or Moon mean that frosty weather will continue; the ring around the moon - to the wind (worsening weather). Professional photographer Yury Gnatyuk filmed a gorgeous halo observation on Solovki.
Northern or polar lights
“The abyss has opened, full of stars; There is no number of stars, the bottom of the abyss”. Not everyone who has heard and quoted these lines by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov knows that the poem from which they are taken is called in full: "Evening meditation on God's majesty in the event of the great northern lights."
In Lomonosov times, science could not yet answer the question of what is the northern lights. Now he answers. The aurora is the glow of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Why does the atmosphere suddenly start to glow? From interaction with charged particles of the solar wind. A stream of helium-hydrogen plasma - the so-called solar wind - flows from the solar corona into the surrounding space. The Earth's magnetic field attracts this plasma. When plasma particles collide with the atmosphere, the atoms and molecules of gases that make up the atmosphere are excited. The radiation of excited atoms is observed as aurora. Scientists have found that excited nitrogen gives purple color, and atmospheric oxygen red and green.
And recently it was confirmed that the Northern Lights also have a sound effect. Scientists from Aalto University (Helsinki) were able not only to hear, but also to record his "voice". The sounds that arise simultaneously with the "flashes" were recorded both in numerous fairy tales and legends of northern peoples, and in the stories of individuals. However, physicists first tried to obtain scientific proof of this acoustic effect only in the 2000s. Helsinki experts analyzed research records of the past 12 years, and also set up their experiment by installing three separate microphones near the receiver of electromagnetic radiation, one of which was equipped with a reflector. By comparing the results of recording from three points, the scientists determined the location of the sound source.
Photographer Fredrik Broms, who has been photographing the Northern Lights for many years, believes that on September 28, 2011, he saw one of the most beautiful "sky light shows" (Fredrik Broms / National News / Zumapress):
Young photographer Tommy Eliassen took this unique photo on September 25, 2011. It simultaneously shows the Milky Way, the northern lights and a falling meteor. The chance to shoot this hardly falls to everyone (Tommy Eliassen / Caters News / Zumapress):
Mirages
The ancient Egyptians believed that a mirage is an image of something that no longer exists in our world, something that existed before, but disappeared from the face of the earth. According to legend, the "mistress" of mirages is Fata Morgana. They say that she, the half-sister of King Arthur, the rejected beloved of Lancelot, settled out of grief at the bottom of the sea, in a crystal palace, and since then has deceived sailors with ghostly visions. Complex phenomena of a mirage with a sharp distortion of the appearance of objects are even called Fata Morgana.
According to the Fraser-Mach theory, for the emergence of fata morgan, it is necessary that the dependence of air temperature on altitude be nonlinear. At first, the temperature increases with height, but from a certain level, the rate of its growth decreases. A similar temperature profile, only with a steeper "fracture", scientists call an air lens. The existence of such an effect has long been proven by meteorologists, but it is too early to assert that it is he who is the cause of the emergence of Fatamorgan.
Until now, despite their prevalence, mirages evoke an almost mystical sense of surprise. We all are well aware of the reason for the appearance of most of them - overheated air changes its optical properties, causing light inhomogeneities. At the same time, everything is known about mirages and nothing at the same time! Thousands of people watched in the sky literally hanging cities and even entire armies, the most colorful mirages in history describe the images of Palestine seen by the crusaders. But scientists do not have a clear explanation for this natural phenomenon: it is extremely difficult to study mirages, they do not appear at the request of researchers.
Interestingly, the brightest and clearest visions do not arise in the desert, as is usually thought, but in extreme cold conditions - in Alaska. There is even a society for the study of mirages. Specialists record all images and phenomena in a special journal.
Cappuccino Coast or Sea Foam
One of the rarest phenomena in nature. This unique phenomenon was observed in different parts of the planet, but mainly in the Southern Hemisphere - Maryland (USA), Queensland (Australia), New South Wales (Australia). The inhabitants of the city of Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa once witnessed this unusual and rare. The water on the coast of the Sea Point beach was covered with thick foam and turned the sea into a real "sea cappuccino".
In a surprising phenomenon, sea foam plays an active role - algae are mixed with small debris and organic waste, and then "whipped" into foam by a strong wind. The foam receives a sufficiently stable structure that allows it to remain unchanged for a long time. Such an anomaly does not affect people in any way and does not cause harm, as soon as it hits the coast, it immediately begins to gradually melt.
Biconvex clouds (Lenticular mammatus or Mammatus Cloud)
Another extremely rare and impressive natural phenomenon. They have a cellular structure and are a type of cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds. This phenomenon was discovered quite recently - about 30 years ago.
Usually the observer sees Mammatus in the form of gray clouds with darker elements hanging down. However, at a low height of the Sun above the horizon (for example, at sunset), mammoths can acquire a gray-blue, gray-pink, golden and even reddish color.
Most often, such clouds are called hurricane harbingers. In the United States, the appearance of Mammatus was previously associated with an upcoming tornado in an ensemble of cumulonimbus cells, but now it is generally accepted that their appearance does not mean that a tornado or tornado is about to happen. However, the thunderstorms generating Mammatus ensembles have a high likelihood of ball lightning and wind shear. Therefore, aircraft crews need to avoid them.
Such clouds can be observed in the middle latitudes of Russia, but rather rarely. They usually arise during fading thunderstorms in the rear (descending) part of the "anvils". It is the fact that clouds form on descending air movements that make them unique (usually cloudiness is formed during ascending currents).
Glowing beaches of the Maldives
The magnificent beaches of one of the best resorts in the world in the Maldives glow blue at night. Warning: this is not dangerous.
Scientists have found that the whole secret is hidden in bioluminescent phytoplankton, it accumulates near the coast and, when exposed to waves, shimmers with a soft blue glow due to the fact that the cells of these simple organisms contain a special enzyme luciferase.
Glowing beaches in the Maldives can be seen quite often, especially on those nights when the moon is not visible in the sky. Special night expeditions are even organized for divers and those who want to swim in the "ocean of stars".
Green ray
“Have you ever watched the Sun setting over the horizon of the sea? Yes, no doubt about it. Have you traced it to the point where the top edge of the disc touches the horizon and then disappears? Probably yes. But have you noticed the phenomenon that occurs at the moment when the radiant luminary casts its last ray, if the sky is free from clouds and completely transparent? Maybe not. Do not miss the opportunity to make such an observation: it will not be a red ray that will hit your eye, but a green, wondrous green color, such that no artist can get on his palette and which nature itself does not reproduce in various shades of vegetation, or in the color of itself transparent sea”.
A similar article in an English newspaper thrilled the young heroine of Jules Verne's novel "The Green Ray" and prompted her to undertake a series of travels with the sole purpose of seeing the green ray with her own eyes. The young Scot did not manage to observe this beautiful natural phenomenon. But it still exists. The green ray is an optical effect that lasts from 1-2 seconds to 5 minutes, manifests itself as a flash of green, less often blue light at the moment the solar disk disappears behind the horizon (usually sea).
To observe it, three conditions are necessary: an open horizon (in the steppe or at sea in the absence of waves), clean air and a cloud-free side of the horizon, where the sun sets or rises.
The usual duration of the green ray is only a few seconds, but it is possible to increase the observation time if, when it appears, quickly run up the embankment or move from one deck of the ship to another at such a speed as to maintain the position of the eye relative to the green ray. During one of the expeditions to the South Pole, the American pilot and explorer R. Byrd observed the green ray for 35 minutes! This happened at the end of the polar night, when the edge of the solar disk first appeared above the horizon and moved along it.
Everyone who has seen the green ray is struck by its extraordinary emerald tone. It is possible that the extraordinary purity of the green tone prompted the specialist in holography and lasers, William Cohn, to look for an explanation of the green ray in the emission of excited oxygen atoms during their transition from a metastable state to a normal state, accompanied by the emission of green light with a wavelength of 0.5585 μm. However, the mechanism of the origin of such a natural laser has not yet been fully disclosed.
Frozen tsunami
Sometime in 2011, residents of the Canadian province of Manitoba heard a sound similar to the noise of an approaching train, and after a few minutes ice filled their homes. These icy waves came ashore like a slow frozen tsunami, sweeping through lawns and reaching coastal homes, forcing residents to flee their homes in panic. A layer of ice covered 16 km of the coastline and reached a height of 9 meters, damaging the doors and windows of houses.
A similar event happened to the residents of Minnesota, USA. The ice tsunami then, according to experts, caused a strong wind, which reached a speed of 60 km per hour, and rose from the southern coast of Lake Mille Lax - the second largest lake in Minnesota.