St. Elmo's Fire and other atmospheric phenomenon

[DOK001]

Hi all,

Take a look at this link:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/072756/M/

I've never seen St. Elmo's Fire cause this effect over the windshield before.

Has anyone else ever experienced St. Elmo's Fire, auroras or any other strange atmospheric conditions? Very interesting stuff....

[redsnail]

I have seen that effect quite a few times in Europe. I can't recall ever seeing it in Australia. (not enough night flying perhaps??).

[Tinstaafl]

I had a similar thing in Oz once, between Charleville & Mt Isa at A080. Shimering green-ish flames licking up the windscreen. Sort of a curtain effect. No heat noticeable. When I brought my fingers near the windscreen sparks formed from the screen to my fingertips. The sparks would follow my fingertips across the windscreen.

Didn't last very long (minute or so??) but fascinating & eerily beautiful while it was there.

[keithl]

Yep, seen that lots of times over Northern waters. Most interesting manifestation of St Elmo's I ever saw was a sort of glowing 'doughnut' around the AAR probe. It grew and grew in intensity until it was obvious something had to give. I called "Standby for lightning strike" to the crew ("static discharge" would only have confused...) and 5 sec later there was a big bang and everyone thought I was God - or at least a prophet!

[Nerik]

I remember Capt. Eric Moody recounting that before all 4 engines were lost due to the volcanic ash encounter in Indonesia the spectacle of St. Elmo's fire was the most incredible he had ever witnessed. The crew were mesmerised by it until they realised what was happening...........

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

It's actually quite common, when flying in the vicinity of thunderstorms. I remember descending one night in the London area, with St Elmo's dancing around the windscreen. The first officer, who rather fancied one of the stewardesses, called her up to the flightdeck and said "Look at this K---ty" He then casually pointed his finger at the windscreen, whereupon the St Elmo's jumped across the gap to the first officer's finger with a loud crack, causing a loud yelp from said first officer and K---ty to flee the flightdeck. I nearly Sh!t myself laughing ... but then captains are cruel!

[jrbt]

Since you ask if anyone has experienced "St. Elmo's Fire, aurora other strange atmospheric conditions", may I put in a plug for my thread under Flight Deck Forums: Questions - Survey: have you seen aurora below or "around" your aircraft.

Scientists say it's impossible but I saw aurora below an aircraft I was flying in in 1967. So I'm asking pilots to report whether they've seen it too, as corroboration. If enough pilots report they've seen it, and provide lots of details about it, perhaps the scientists will take this seriously and begin to look into it. Especially if the next *future* instance occurs and pilots on different aircraft report it independently on PPRuNe and back up each other's accounts.

By the way, I don't think what I saw in 1967 was St. Elmo's Fire. But I'd be interested to hear your opinion, based on the description in my post/thread.

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Saw it just as in the linked photo, and it was a fascinating and beautiful sight.

I was on the jumpseat of an ancient 737 freighter, flying between Singapore and Manila. The weather radar wasn't working, and we saw the St. Elmo's fire inside a particularly unpleasant CB.

[Bigmouth]

Have had it on the prop tips as well as on the windshield. Very cool indeed. Don´t believe it has anything to do with latitude.

[ZQA297/30]

I think the type depicted in the photo is quite common, usually in the vcnty of ice crystals or intensely electrically charged cloud.
When it becomes particularly intense, the radar beam also becomes ionised and can be seen as a thin cone either green blue or purple pointing off into the distance ahead, sometimes fifty or a hundred feet. It is often accompanied by intense static on the radios. Hail and turbulence are also often in attendance.
Spectacular, but scary.
I have seen it just about everywhere at various times, tropics to Canada.

[Faire d'income]

St. Elmo's fire is not as rare as some here might think. It can happen day or night though it looks more spectacular at night. AFAIK it can happen anywhere in the world as it is just basically static.

JRBT I think I have seen what you are talking about. A couple of times at very northerly latitudes I have witnessed what appeared to be the Aurora all around the aircraft including below. Don't know if it was just an illusion or what but stunning all the same.

[Loose rivets]

Mauve St Elmo’s fire was an almost every-night occurrence in the pre radar days. Flogging in Viscounts at 170/180 from London to Palma etc., was pretty certain to give at least one show.

When we got shiny new BAC 1-11's we of course got above most of the weather, but when we did get discharges over the gold laminate glass, to my surprise the sparks were white. I would be interested to know why the difference.

Going off the thread a little, there was a “famous” case of a lightning ball appearing between the shoulders of a Court-line 1-11. Flight deck crew. It supposedly floated down the length of the fuselage and disappeared. This was in around 1970, and one of the cabin staff was a family friend. She confirmed the pilot’s report...in no uncertain terms.

Many physicists still do not believe that these exist. Any recent research?