Lightning Over Tehran, Iran
November 16, 2010
Photographer: Saeid Aghaei; Saeid's website
Summary Author: Saeid Aghaei; Jim Foster
The photo above shows a sinewy bolt of lightning from an unusual mid-autumn thunderstorm that enveloped Tehran, Iran on the night of October 26, 2010. Vigorous cloud-to-cloud lightning and cloud-to-ground strikes were reported during this storm. Intracloud lightning results when there's an electrical charge difference between the base of a storm cell (almost always negative) and its upper reaches (almost always positive). On the other hand, intercloud lightning, as featured here, is caused by charge differences between separated clouds. Lightning flashes somewhere on our planet about every five seconds; the majority of these discharges are cloud-to-cloud.
Photo details: Camera Maker: Canon; Camera Model: Canon EOS 300D DIGITAL; Focal Length: 18.0mm; Aperture: f/8.0; Exposure Time: 3.200 s; ISO equiv: 100; Exposure Bias: none; Metering Mode: Average; Exposure Mode: Manual; White Balance: Manual; Flash Fired: No; Color Space: sRGB.