2 ms·

Due to the way the flashes scatter among the clouds, I'd say that they are lightning contained within thunderheads/conflicting air masses.

• Achshar 15y ago
  But lightning should be very quick and hence shouldn't appear in a time lapse.. It is still as quick in time lapse as it would be in normal speed. :O
  • JMill 15y ago
    The time lapse catches the strikes by chance. There are ~100 lightning flashes per second globally (80% are in-cloud flashes and 20% are cloud-to-ground flashes) and ~2000 thunderstorms occurring simultaneously on Earth. [1] That's a huge opportunity to catch lightning flashes over a high quality time lapse from August to October 2011 (the time span of the video). The astronauts' real-time views from the ISS' windows must be amazing. If I were up there in the ISS, I'd never get any work done because I'd be staring out the window the whole time! [1] http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00239.htm http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00239.htm