St. Elmo's fire
A St. Elmo's Fire ( St. Elmo's Fire, fire Elias ) is a rare, caused by electric charges Light Effect ( electric meteors ). It is named after the canonized bishop Erasmus of Antioch (about 240-303, Italian Elmo ) named the sailors call when they get into trouble by a storm.
Description
At a Elmsfeuer is a continuous corona discharge in the atmosphere which occurs in stormy weather conditions with electric field intensities of more than 100 kV / m. The St. Elmo's fire can be observed under these conditions at high, sharp objects, such as ships' masts, steeples, mountain peaks and barbed wire fences. It also occurs in the front wheels of the aircraft.
Even in the mountains at an approaching storm front is reported by this phenomenon. Especially in the area of the summit cross, coupled with the characteristic hum ( pimples ringing ) an electrostatic charge, it can come to these phenomena. Very rarely report also climbers from a lamp near the ground, which lasts approximately one minute. This is often described as the Northern Lights, a similar phenomenon. People near a Elmsfeuers are due to the strong potential difference often " the hair on ."
In a Elmsfeuer there is immediate danger of lightning. Elmsfeuer represent a gas discharge and glow because of the spectral lines of the gases oxygen and nitrogen blue violet in the Earth's atmosphere.
St. Elmo's fire in popular culture
- Herman Melville described a St. Elmo's fire as ominous event in his novel Moby - Dick ( 1851).
- In William Shakespeare's play The Tempest St. Elmo's Fire comes in a song of the air spirit Ariel before:
"On the top, in any cabin Flames ' I horror; soon parted ' and I burned ' in many places; on the mast, to Stang ' and bowsprit Flames ' I separated, then flowed into one ... "
- In the movie " The Hindenburg" a Elmsfeuer ensures, during the crossing to New York temporarily for unrest among some passengers of the zeppelin.
" And Elmo's fire licking from the derrick ... "
- Karl May describes in the novel "The Spirit of Llano Estakata " (later: " The Spirit of the Llano Estacado ," first published in the magazine " The Good Comrade," 1888) St. Elmo's Fire as a tornado harbingers.
- Michael Ende Luke the Engine Driver leaves in the magnetic rock Jim Knopf explain St. Elmo's Fire:
"
- In the film "The Downfall of the Pamir", Part I, St. Elmo's fire is represented as a harbinger of the approaching disaster.