ILAN Science Team - Imaging of Lightning And Nocturnal flashes

New Blog and website

2010-11-13T06:47:00.002+02:00

Please check out our new Blog and website at:

http://tau-geo.tau.ac.il/ilan/Default.aspx

Since this blog is not active anymore...

Eurosprite

2010-10-10T06:26:00.002+02:00

Does lightning Strike twice? could be,

but where one hit somewhere near another one might.

When we point the cameras we usually follow the storm and try to aim to the location where lightning had already struck.

We discovered while working on the Eurosprite campaign a cool add-on (KML file) to

Google Earth that gives us locations of lightning on real-time.

This tool was useful in training our new hunters:

Shy Halatzi, Vered Silverman and Hodaya Sher.

Well, wish us luck for the coming season,

Cammon lucky Sprite!

Mighty meteors fire up the desert sky

2010-08-28T22:53:00.001+03:00

In the Perseid meteor shower of 2010, 54 meteors were detected by our 100N and 902H watec cameras.

The peak of the shower took place near dawn while our cameras were directed towards the radiant (the constellation of Perseus).

Thousands of eager Israelis joined scientific teams from Tel Aviv University to behold the spectacle.

Testing...

2010-07-29T20:45:00.003+03:00

During the dry season there are no sprites in Israel.

What will the poor sprite hunter do?

She will find better hunting grounds. This August we will create little artificial sprites in a bottle way up north in Holland.

Do you wish to know how is it done?
Have a look at our last year's catch on arXiv.

Good hunting and good night.

27-28 Feb 2010

2010-02-27T21:45:00.003+02:00

Here are some lightning me and my father (Gaby) caught from the 14th story in Rishon Lezion.
Looking north-west to the Mediterranean sea and the city of Bat Yam.

Roy

17-18.1.2010

2010-01-18T11:57:00.002+02:00

Here are some lightning pictures from the storm.

Hanukkah candles..

2009-12-13T10:01:00.025+02:00

10-11.12.2009

A combination of determination, well-developed Cypros low and clear sky have led to 38 new Sprites and 14 new Meteors. The events were caught by the hunters Keren Mezuman, Eitan Amit & Naama Reicher from Tel-Aviv`s Team.

Synoptic, lightnings and clouds maps are attached in addition to some selected photos of the events. have fun...

Winter 2009 - 2010

2009-11-04T21:28:00.003+02:00

New winter season – new campaign.

28-29.10.2009:

5 new sprites were caught by Roy Yaniv and Naama Reicher from the Tel Aviv team with a mutual cooperation of Jozsef Bor from the Hungarian sprite team that came to visit us in Israel.

The sprites were caught during the first Cyprus low of the year.

A synoptic map attached.

Perseids 2009

2009-08-13T10:53:00.001+03:00

Thought not at peak time, we imaged 31 meteors from Mt. Hermon.
Here are two samples.

New papers

2009-06-14T12:26:00.002+03:00

I'm happy to inform that we have two new papers.

Greenberg et al 2009 - ELF/VLF signatures of sprite-producing lightning discharges observed during the 2005 EuroSprite campaign

Yaniv et al 2009 - Calibration of CCD Cameras for Measurements of Sprites and Elves

Passover Sprites

2009-04-17T23:38:00.002+03:00

We caught 3 sprites on the 8.4.2009. The synoptic conditions were Cyprus low pressure system.

25-26.2.2009 Event

2009-03-11T12:31:00.004+02:00

5 Sprites, 1 Halo and 4 Elves were caught during a cyprus low pressure event.

"Half a Tornado" - 31.1.2009 night

2009-02-01T17:33:00.004+02:00

Here are nice images taken by Gaby Yaniv (Roy's father) of a Tornado.
It didn't touch the ground but still, it looks great.
Picture was taken from the city of Rishon Lezion, looking North to Bat-Yam and Tel - Aviv.

30.1.2009 -1 sprite

2009-02-01T17:31:00.001+02:00

We caught 1 sprite from Tel-Aviv. Azimuth was 330 toward Cyprus.

1 sprite 4 saturday

2009-01-31T14:39:00.009+02:00

we were watching toward the north - the gulf of Iskenderun (thanks Renzo)

at 21:56 (local time) we observed 1 sprite.

6-7.1.09 - New year fireworks - cont.

2009-01-12T00:16:00.017+02:00

theses are the events that were observed by the jerusalem team...

6-7.1.2009 - New Year fireworks

2009-01-08T15:00:00.012+02:00

What a night. We gained a new record of observed TLEs in the vicinity of Israel.
We caught 39 Sprites, 3 Elves and 2 Halos in one night. It was a cyprus low that went to the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean sea with clear visibility as can be seen in the "dust model" map.

מאמר על ספרייטים בגלילאו

2009-01-07T13:35:00.002+02:00

שלום לכולם

ראו בקישור הבא מאמר שפורסם בגליון חודש דצמבר של העיתון גלילאו

http://www.tau.ac.il/~royyaniv/ILAN_website/Yair%20in%20Galileo.pdf

זו כתבה שלי על שדוני ברקים ועל ההיסטוריה הקצרה של מחקרים בתחום, כולל תיאור של תצפיותינו בישראל

מקווה שתהנו!

יואב

28-29.12.2008 Storm

2008-12-29T12:17:00.005+02:00

28-29.12.2008 Storm

We caught 19 Sprites, 1 Halo, and 1 Sprite + Halo during a Cyprus low cyclone. The synoptic map in the area is dominated by upper trough from East Europe (500hp) and a low pressure cyclone in the surface (850hp). CAPE values were 300-400 J/Kg and Vertical wind was 28-30 hp/hour.

22-23.12.08 storm

2008-12-27T13:40:00.030+02:00

these are the sprites that was coaught from Jerusalem (at monday the 22th, around 19:00(LT)).

from our observation post at Jerusalem (direction - azimuth: 330).

22-23.12.2008 Storm

2008-12-25T15:11:00.003+02:00

We had a Cyprus low heading our way as can be seen in the attached synoptic map.
The Storm was quite far but we did manage to capture 1 sprite.

21-22 Lightning pictures

2008-12-25T14:44:00.003+02:00

Those B&W pictures were taken during a tropical plume with a jet stream.

They were captured with UFO capture software.

21-24 Nov 2008 events

2008-11-24T12:55:00.003+02:00

We observed during all the weekend. There was a storm (Cyprus Low) all over the area.
Sadly in the first night 21-22 Nov we were covered with cloud, despite of it, we caught several meteors between the gaps.
On the second night 22-23 Nov the storm died in our region and was located on the northern part of Cyprus and the coast of

Turkey

. The CAPE values were quite low and the flash rate was low too. We caught 8 meteors.
On the third night, the storm shifted to Iskenderun bay - the north-east part of the Mediterranean. The flash rate increased and we were on the edge of our observation range. we caught 7 meteors during the night and one sprite. The distance to the area is more then 400km.

23-24 Nov Sprite:

Sample Meteors:

2008-11-23T13:25:00.008+02:00

During the nights of the 21-22 and 22-23 of November the ILAN team conducted night observations.

attached the result from the Jerusalem site:

On the night of 21-22 of November we observed: 1 sprite, 24 meteors.
On the night of 22-23 of November we observed: 2 sprites, 21 meteors.

the sprite from the 21-22 of November night:

the sprites from the 22-23 of November:

2008-11-18T19:10:00.005+02:00

On the night of the 17-18 of November, we conducted night observation on the Leonid meteor shower from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

we observed 27 meteors from Jerusalem. attached some of our findings:

2008-11-14T17:05:00.004+02:00

During the night of the 13-14 of November we conducted night observation from Jerusalem.
we observed 20 meteors and 1 sprite. It seems that the parent cell cloud top wasn't significantly high based on satellite image, but it seems that there was enough stratified region to accumulate positive charge.

attached the sprite image and the satellite image.

2008-11-13T18:30:00.005+02:00

In continue to the results of the Tel Aviv site during the night of the 12-13 of november, we attach the image of sprite capruted from Jerusalem. The distance to the sprite is estimated to be 150km bearing 035 from Jeruslaem.

attached also the a radar image of parent cell.

New Sprites 12-13.11.2008

2008-11-13T15:20:00.003+02:00

We caught 2 new sprites in the night of 12-13.11.2008. The storm can be seen in the attached synoptic map. The sprites were caught from Tel-Aviv University. during the observation we used two cameras but sadly, the sprites were caught on the edge of the right camera, thus, the left camera with the "red filter" missed them.
We caught an immpresive fireball. The meteor was caught on both cameras. thus analysed calculation can be made to understand what is the diffrence between the emission of the burning over all the visible wavelengthes to the emission from the meteor in the red filter camera(630-810 nm).

24 - 25 October - Lightnings

2008-11-08T09:53:00.004+02:00

Following the great Sprite's photos, here is some lightning that were caught during the great night of 24-25 October 2008. The images were taken by Roni Lapid. from his home at Maagan Michael. The storm was located over the coastal city of Haifa and the nearby bay.
Most of the images are IC discharges, but there are several images of CG discharges on the Carmel ridge.

Sprite Images captured from Jerusalem observation site

2008-11-04T19:18:00.021+02:00

The Jerusalem observation TLE'S (Transient Luminous Events) site became operational at October 2007.

The site is located on a mountain ~800[m] AMSL and due to the fact that it is positioned in the outskirts of Jerusalem (Givat Ram campus - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel), it offers good visibility conditions degree. The site has a 360 degrees viewing capability.

The night observation we conduct are part of the ILAN team's research, and are coordinated in some of the cases (depending on the effect of weather on the visibility of the sites) with the Tel-Aviv University site/Mizpe Ramon site.

We observed Sprites above Thunder Storms that evolved in the eastern Mediterranean.
During the month of October we manage to capture 16 events total, during four successful night observation.

We attached images below taken by our team members.

Images of Sprites taken by Shalem Cohen during the night of the 21-22 October. estimated distance to the Sprites is ~400 km north of Jerusalem, (the Iskandrun bay and the coast of syria).

Images of Sprites taken by Elyakom Vadislavsky during the night of the 23-24 October. estimated distance to the Sprites is ~150 km west of Jerusalem (cosat of south-west Israel).

New LINKS in our ILAN website

2008-11-03T10:20:00.003+02:00

http://geophysics.tau.ac.il/personal/Ilan/
I placed some importent new links on our website that will help our observation.
you can check out the Satellite maps and current observation links to see them.

2008-10-28T14:31:00.008+02:00

24-25 October 2008, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
We caught "desert Sprites". There was a big storm over the Negev desert in Israel.