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... air ought to be sufficient to make the vortex luminous at night and the fast spin may make the vortex appear ball-shaped. Such a description suggests that Meaden may well have explained some sightings previously reported as UFOs in areas where circles have been found." (Elsom, Derek; "A Crop of Circles," New Scientist, p. 58, July 29, 1989.) The books are: Circular Evidence , Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews, Bloomsbury, 14.95 pounds; and The Circles Effect and Its Mysteries , G. Terence Meaden, Artetech, 11.95 pounds. Comment. Why are the crop circles so common in England (160 so far this summer alone) so rare elsewhere? Could the luminous phenomenon predicted by Meaden be related to the tornado lights reported under GLD10 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights? From Science Frontiers #65, SEP-OCT 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Possible Ball Lightning In Ankara June 14, 1988. Ankara, Turkey. "Another phenomenon occurred on 14 June in Ankara: May and June are usually very showery and thundery in central Anatolia and this year is no exception. However, the previous few days had been unusually stormy here in Ankara, and on the 14th the second thunderstorm of the day was in progress with curtains of rain and flickers of lightning, a few kilometres away to the north-west. The storm was moving towards us and the squally wind had already begun. I was again watching the weather from my office, which is on the fifth floor, when I was suddenly distracted by the appearance of a very bright, circular flash of blue-purple light (perhaps one metre or less in diameter), which persisted for about two seconds and then silently 'popped out,' leaving behind a puff of smoke, which then drifted away. The flash of circu lar light occurred about 500 m away from me: it was about 30 m above the ground, close to, and partly behind, a tall factory chimney. There was definitely no cloud-to-earth lightning over that area at that time, but the edge of the cumulonimbus cloud, giving the storm a few kilometres away, was directly overhead." (Kirvar, Erol; "Thunderstorm and Possible Ball Lightning in Ankara, June 1988," Weather, 44:136, 1989.) Reference. The various forms of ball lightning are cataloged in chapter GLB ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Zeitoun Apparitions The luminous phenomena observed at Zeitoun, Egypt, have attracted the attentions of a wide spectrum of believers and nonbelievers. Each group seems to interpret the phenomena according to its own particular mind-set! To set the stage for the study reviewed here, we quote first the two lead paragraphs of the paper. "Between April 1968 and May 1971 hundreds of thousands of people reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary over a Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, near Cairo, Egypt. When photographed, these phenomena appeared as irregular blobs of light. Primarily there were two types of events: small shortlived, highly kinetic lights (' doves') and more persistent coronal type displays that were situated primarily over the apical structures of the church. More detailed descriptions of the phenomena, such as visions often occurred as 'flashes'; their details usually reflected the religious background of the experient. "The characteristics of these luminous phenomena strongly suggested the existence of tectonic strain within the area. According to the hypothesis of tectonic strain, anomalous luminous phenomena are generated by brief, local changes in strain that precede earthquakes within the region. Psychological factors determine more elaborate details of the experiences because there are both direct stimulations of the observer's brain as well as indirect contributions from reinforcement history." The authors of the study at hand, J.S . Derr and M.A . Persinger, are well known for ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf064/sf064g10.htm
... and during several recent earthquakes. T. Ogawa and his colleagues have surveyed these observations briefly and then repaired to the laboratory where they put rocks through the third degree. They concluded: "It has been demonstrated by the sample rock experiments that the ordinary crustal rocks produced electricity when they were shocked or fractured and radiated EM waves in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 100 kHz. The electric dipole moment to radiate the EM waves was estimated to be 10-14 C m." (Ogawa, Toshio, et al; "Electromagnetic Radiations from Rocks," Journal of Geophysical Research, 90:6245, 1985.) Comment. What was not mentioned by Ogawa et al is that it is just this kind of seismoelectricity that may be responsible for many of the sightings of earthquake lights and maybe even some so-called UFOs. Se GLD8 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... oriented clouds. (See figure.) The cloud ring was 80-100 meters across and seemed to rotate in a horizontal plane at the rate of about one revolution per minute. As though this were not strange enough, the rotating "cloud object" itself moved in a larger circle 8-10 times the diameter of the "cloud object." The "cloud object" took 4-5 minutes to complete a trip around the larger circle. The phenomenon lasted for about an hour before dissipating. (Netley, Edward; "Unusual Circulating Cloud Object," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 21:384, 1996.) Sketch of the revolving "cloud object". Part of the circle is omitted for clarity; it was actually complete. Like a wheel-within-a -wheel, this circle moved around a larger circular path. From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mekong Mystery The following question was posed in the September 6 issue of New Scientist. "My wife and I saw a puzzling sight in October 1994, in the Mekong River near Nongkhai, Thailand, during a full moon, in the evening. Lights appeared under the water for a few hundred metres along the Mekong River. They rose from the bottom of the river and floated to the surface, then shot like missiles into the sky and out of sight. They were the size of beach balls, and many flew out of the water every few minutes, surfacing about 10 metres apart. I am told that this happens every year at the same time. Locals say it is caused by a serpent releasing her eggs. Does anyone know of this phenomenon?" A. Pentecost answered. He noted first the similarity of the Mekong phenomenon to the will-o '- the-wisp or ignis fatuus. The usual explanation of ignis fatuus blames the spontaneous combustion of marsh gas. However, the Mekong lights are initially seen under the water where there would not be enough oxygen to support combustion. Pentecost suggested instead phosphorescent bacteria or the "cold flame" of phosphorus vapor which might form through diphosphane decomposition. (Pentecost, Allan, et al; "Mekong Mystery," New Scientist, p. 96, September 6, 1997.) References. The Mekong phenomenon may be allied with the many examples of luminous ...
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... re-resurrect the foo fighters with an Associated Press Bulletin from 1945. "AMERICAN NIGHT FIGHTER BASE. France, Jan. 1. -- The Germans have thrown something new into the night skies over Germany -- the weird, mysterious "foo-fighter," balls of fire that race alongside the wings of American Beaufighters flying intruder missions over the Reich. "American pilots have been encountering the eerie "foo-fighter" for more than a month in their night flights. No one apparently knows what this sky weapon is. "The balls of fire appear suddenly and accompany the planes for miles. They appear to be radio-controlled from the ground and keep up with planes flying 300 miles an hour, official intelligence reports reveal. "There are three kinds of these lights we call 'foo-fighters,'" Lieut. Donald Meiers of Chicago said. "One is red balls of fire which appear off our wing tips and fly along with us; the second is a vertical row of three balls of fire which fly in front of us; and the third is a group of about fifteen lights which appear off in the distance -- like a Christmas tree up in the air -- and flicker on and off." .. .. . "A 'foo-fighter' picked me up recently at 700 feet and chased me twenty miles down the Rhine Valley," Lieutenant Meiers said. "I turned to starboard and two balls of fire turned with me. I turned to the port side and they turned with me. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Some Green Flashes Are Yellow Rarely, green flashes are observed just as the tip of the setting sun disappears below the horizon. Most of these flashes have a perfectly good explanation. The earth's atmosphere acts like a prism and disperses the light of the sun into a spectrum, and the last portion of this spectrum that one usually sees is green. Conditions have to be just right, though. A flat horizon and a layer of warm air are important. But even when conditions seem perfect, the green flash does not always appear, and all one sees is the red tip of the sun sinking out of sight. Even if the patient observer is rewarded by a green flash, he may really have been deceived, for there are "false" green flashes. A. Young, San Diego State University, reported at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society on a peculiar type of optical illusion that can afflict observers of the setting sun. It seems that the intense red light of the sun near the horizon can bleach the red-sensitive receptors in the retina so that an intent observer becomes temporarily color blind to red. When this happens, the observer sees the yellow part of the dispersed solar spectrum as being green (yellow minus red = green). The true green flash may never have appeared at all. (Seife, Charles; "Don't Let Your Eyes Deceive You," ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Now We Know Why!Circa 1950, physicist E. Fermi observed that our galaxy measures about 100,000 light years across, and that a spacefaring race could cross it in only 100 million years, even if their starships poked along at only 1/1 ,000 the speed of light. Since our galaxy is about 10 billion years old, the very reasonable question is: If other intelligences (ETs) exist in our galaxy, why haven't they found us by now? Actually, many ETs from many different cultures should be stopping by frequently. J. Annis, an astrophysicist at Fermilab, believes he can explain the apparent dearth of ETs. The problem is gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). They are so powerful that they sterilize those galaxies in which they occur. Presently, GRBs occur in each galaxy about once every 100 million years, but theory suggests that they were much more frequent in the past. As a consequence, by the time intelligent life evolves anywhere and figures out how to build spaceships, they are zapped by a GRB. Perhaps some do begin exploration of their galaxy, but they don't get very far. (Matthews, Robert; "Sorry, We'll Be Late," New Scientist, p. 16, January 23, 1999.) Comment. Any reader of science fiction can come up with other explanations: (1 ) ETs have been ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf122/sf122p17.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Forest Rings No! These rings have nothing to do with crop circles, nor with fairy rings either. Forest rings are best appreciated from a light plane. Hunters and hikers in Canada's boreal forests walk right across the rings without noticing them. But from the air, they are striking apparitions. Most are less than 300 meters in diameter, but the largest is 2 kilometers across. Basically, they are annuli of sparse growth amid dense stands of trees both inside and outside the rings. The barren rings -- some 2,000 have been found -- appear light-colored against the dark green of the healthy forest growth. Why don't trees grow well within the rings, and why the neat circles? At first expanding rings of fungus infection were suspected, something perhaps like the fungus that creates those fairy rings on lawns. But no fungus has been found on the tree roots. One curious fact was discovered about the soil where tree growth is sparse. The soil constituting the rings is poorly drained and is depressed 1-2 meters below the surrounding healthy forest. These circular depressions support mainly peat and tamaracks. But what causes these ring-shaped depressions? One theory holds that the rings are the suface expressions of diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes, like those in South Africa. A few prospectors are already staking diamond-mine claims! Another theory supposes that the rings are created by huge ...
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