Sprites (atmospheric) - new movie

February 17, 2006 11:04 AM

7000 frames per secondNewscientist article, with links to the movies. "Atmospheric 'sprites' captured in explosive detail ... by researchers using an ultra-high-speed camera. "The best images yet of the flashes – which resemble a giant undulating jellyfish with its tentacles falling from a halo of light – have allowed the team to pick apart their structure and mechanics. "
posted by hank (22 comments total)

Cool!
posted by Thorzdad at 11:09 AM on February 17, 2006

Hm... sprite porn...

Hentai sense is tingling!
posted by qvantamon at 11:12 AM on February 17, 2006

Looks like a flying spaghetti monster.
posted by whoshotwho at 11:12 AM on February 17, 2006

Can't get it to work in quicktime - (i would die rather than install realplayer) : perhaps this is the work of the sprites ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 11:14 AM on February 17, 2006

It plays for me, but after a few frames it washes over with artifacting. Those first few frames were neat, though. I've never heard of this phenomenon before.
posted by brundlefly at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2006

wow.
posted by docpops at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2006

Those aren't sprites, they're ANGELS. ANGELS!!!
posted by LordSludge at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2006

They're electromagnetic aliens that got in through the hole in our protective ozone layer and are now raining down cancerous zeta rays on us.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2006

They're operating thetans!
posted by anthill at 11:40 AM on February 17, 2006

badass. they are clearly the work of an intelligent designer. just kidding. that's awesome, though.
posted by shmegegge at 11:44 AM on February 17, 2006

Cue "I, for one..." comment...
posted by O Blitiri at 12:02 PM on February 17, 2006

Cthulhu... also, my pimp rig gets 7000 in 3DMark1945.
posted by thanatogenous at 12:43 PM on February 17, 2006

gorgeous. that's a lot of film.
how'd they cue that up? Imagine the waste of a poorly-timed shot...
posted by Busithoth at 12:49 PM on February 17, 2006

the engine isnae workin captain ! ah cannae see the jellyfish ...ah want tae see the jellyfish !
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:13 PM on February 17, 2006

Looks like a cellular automaton. Wolfram must be excited by it.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:32 PM on February 17, 2006

Quicktime:

http://quicktime.oit.duke.edu/news/sprites.mp4
posted by hank at 4:33 PM on February 17, 2006

quicktime is missing software to perform this operation unfortunately it is not on the quicktime server
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:49 PM on February 17, 2006

the sprites are the emissaries of evil and their weapon is realplayer.
I will restate my intention to face certain jellyfish deprivation rather than install real player - which everyone knows is crap.
Bit of a waste shooting all that film and not making it available to everyone.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:02 PM on February 17, 2006

beautiful. we need more posts like this.
posted by Miles Long at 5:04 PM on February 17, 2006

wow. just wow.

self fractalizing photonic ephemeral bifurcating arboreal particle rays.

my stoner babble kung fu is strong tonight
posted by lalochezia at 8:42 PM on February 17, 2006

Wowish. But how do you watch it at 7000 fps? On what device? Certainly not this old iBook... Or postage-stamp size...
posted by rleamon at 9:26 PM on February 17, 2006

I imagine it is done digitally...I know our gov't has cameras that claim to do over a million fps for rocket/ballistic warhead research (among other things).
posted by gren at 11:11 PM on February 17, 2006