The study of this phenomena will be interesting.  I can imagine that a large 
lightning discharge would be proceeded by many small unsuccessful attempts.  I 
do not recall a rule that states that once a charge movement is initiated that 
it must continue to a large conclusion.   Perhaps the dark lightning is one of 
these smaller events that does not involve enough current to be visible.


For my hypothesis to be possible it is necessary for the electric field to vary 
within a thunder cloud.  This seems like a reasonable assumption.  You need a 
relatively short space between the positive and negative charge carriers where 
an intense electric field resides.  This field might be modulated by nearby 
discharges that lead to local intensification.


Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net>
To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 10, 2013 2:15 pm
Subject: RE: [Vo]:Dark Lightning


The first thing that came to mind for the missing bolt was Dirac "reciprocal
space". Can lightning sometimes end up in reciprocal space? If so, it should
be some kind of Fourier transform. This site turned up:

http://www.rodenburg.org/theory/Reciprocalspace20.html

... which is interesting, but another site other may actually give us a
better and mundane explanation:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/101223-lightning-x-rays-came
ra-science-technology/

Which suggests that a lightning bolt carries almost all its x-ray radiation
in its tip. 

Thus, if an observer saw only lots of x-rays and no flash of light, a
plausible explanation is that the bolt was coming directing at the observer.
Another observer located almost anywhere else far removed, could see the
bolt from its side angle as a string-like bolt. But if that bolt is mostly
in your line of sight, it would be mostly dark.

OK, then why was the observer not fried by the bolt coming directly towards
him - if the bolt was aligned in his direct line of sight? 

Although most lightning strikes do hit the ground or a structure on earth,
some don't, especially at high altitude. Lightning is defined as a massive
electrostatic discharge between electrically charged regions within clouds,
or between a cloud and the Earth's surface. 

Pilots report lightning flashes which start and terminate in clouds without
ever going to ground. Presumably there are pockets of differing polarity at
altitude and occasionally will be aligned in such a way that the lightning
will come directly at the observer but be intercepted by the opposite
polarity before it hits the observer, with only the high energy radiation to
show for it.

IOW - if the observer happened to be located in an airplane, so that both
pockets of charge were aligned in his line of sight, he might never see the
flash itself - only the radiation. The flash would be a small dot of light
which would not stand out like a bolt would.

Note: this is NOT a claim of factuality - simply a "flash" suggestion, so to
speak.

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Blanton 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/thunderstorms-contain-
dark-lightning-invisible-pulses-of-powerful-radiation/2013/04/08/1c796ebc-8a
76-11e2-a051-6810d606108d_story.html


Sometimes its flashes are invisible, just sudden pulses of
unexpectedly powerful radiation. 




 

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