Blue Jet

The other night I was very lucky to get this shot from the aircraft over the Bay of Bengal. It is (I am nearly 100% certain; I am awaiting confirmation from Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who is a cloud expert) a Blue Jet, a very poorly understood phenomenon which is an electrical discharge in a thunderstorm that is emitted vertically upwards, and is straight. It lasted a bit longer than a normal lightning discharge, and travelled vertically upwards. They haven't been photographed very often, and I believe from researching them on the net that this is the first time one has been photographed in a cloud rather than erupting from the dome at the top of the cloud. In 30 years of flying I have never seen one of these before, so I feel exceptionally lucky to have got it on camera!

I had set the WB prior to this shot using moonlight on the clouds, so it is an accurate representation of what we saw. No PP apart from a bit of noise reduction and minor sharpening. Taken with my Pentax K5 and Sigma Super-Wide II, 6 secs handheld at f2.8, ISO 200.




If anyone is intested in reading more about this phenomenon, here's a link

Excellent capture!

Also well photographed.

Best regards

Fascinating. How long did it last, do you think?

Also, were you taking lots of long exposures of the storm, and happened to get that one, or was there something that made you take that particular shot?

I must say, what a privileged view you have. Thanks for sharing it.

What a wonderful photo.

You could also contact Matt Heavner at the university of Alaska - he is an expert in sprites and blue jets.

You can contact email him at [email protected] with the details - location (lat/long or nearest city), time and time zone, and details of what you observed.
I am sure he would be delighted to hear from you and see your photo.

I have watched videos of these sprites going off, but can't remember if it was taken from high altitude plane or from space.

Incredible if you have captured one, and judging from the stream visible and your experienced gut instinct - it is.

Thanks for sharing indeed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmOCe5se9hk&feature=related

We both thought it lasted about a second, but I suspect it was shorter than that. I was not expecting it, I was just trying to get the cloud lit up by lightning. To take these shots, I estimate the time between lightning flashes, then set the exposure time so that I will hopefully only get one flash to avoid blurring (the lightning acts like a flashgun). I then set ISO so that at the desired shutter speed the clouds are only just visible in outline, as experimentation has shown this gives the best results. With the moon out, I could use ISO 200 on this one; on a dark night I am up to ISO 1600 or 3200.

I also got this one of lightning, the first time I have actually captured lightning bolts with any success. This one was taken with my Pentax-A smc 50mm f1.4 at f2.

Thanks, Gwyn, I will do that!

Thanks for the link!

Fascinating, and beautifully captured.

Very interesting shot and must have been amazing to witness. Excellent capture.

Uhhhh, that last one looks like a big competition prize winner IMHO.

Terrific. Is there any more detail available in the clouds in the lower half? It would be nice to see just a little more of them, I think.

The first one is an important photograph, amazingly well done and good luck for capturing it. The other is very nice, I like the tones. I think it would look at its best in letterbox format.

Excellent capture Jonathan, one i BET YOUR WELL PLEASED WITH.

Amazing pictures, both of them. The first has scientific as well as aesthetic appeal. The second one suggests some terrifying global event taking place. I don't care for the word 'awesome' because it's over worked but in this case it seems appropriate.
Keep these airborne images coming Jon, they really are awesome.
David