This glossary of meteorology is a list of terms and concepts relevant to meteorology and atmospheric science , their sub-disciplines, and related fields.
56-412: St. Elmo's fire (also called witchfire or witch's fire ) is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a corona discharge from a rod-like object such as a mast , spire, chimney, or animal horn in an atmospheric electric field . It has also been observed on the leading edges of aircraft, as in the case of British Airways Flight 009 , and by US Air Force pilots. The intensity of
112-852: A Voyage to the South Seas, (to take the Breadfruit plant from the Society Islands to the West Indies,) under the Command of Lieutenant William Bligh, 1 December 1787 – 22 October 1788 Safe 1/46, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW William Noah, a silversmith convicted in London of stealing 2,000 pounds of lead , while en route to Sydney , New South Wales on the convict transport ship Hillsborough , recorded two such observations in his detailed daily journal. The first
168-418: A dim "blue flame" flickering along the backbone girder about one-quarter the length abaft the bow to the tail. There was time for him to remark to his wife, "Oh, heavens, the thing is afire," for her to reply, "Where?" and for him to answer, "Up along the top ridge" – before there was a big burst of flaming hydrogen from a point he estimated to be about one-third the ship's length from the stern. St. Elmo's fire
224-492: A direct lightning strike to the ship thrown into the mix. On 20 February 1817, during a severe electrical storm, James Braid , surgeon at Lord Hopetoun 's mines at Leadhills , Lanarkshire , had an extraordinary experience whilst on horseback: On Thursday 20th, I was gratified for a few minutes with the luminous appearance described above [viz., "such flashes of lightning from the west, repeated every two or three minutes, sometimes at shorter intervals, as appeared to illumine
280-534: A higher power source, thus increasing efficiency by over 50%. St. Elmo's fire is referenced in the works of Julius Caesar ( De Bello Africo , 47) and Pliny the Elder ( Naturalis Historia , book 2, par. 101), Alcaeus frag. 34. Earlier, Xenophanes of Colophon had alluded to the phenomenon. In 15th-century Ming China , Admiral Zheng He and his associates composed the Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions,
336-580: A more negative association, appearing as evidence of the tempest inflicted by Ariel according to the command of Prospero : PROSPERO ARIEL The fires are also mentioned as "death fires" in Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner : Later in the 18th and 19th centuries, literature associated St. Elmo's fire with a bad omen or divine judgment , coinciding with the growing conventions of Romanticism and
392-419: A second night we witnessed a splendid scene of natural fireworks; the mast-head and yard-arm-ends shone with St.Elmo's light; and the form of the vane could almost be traced, as if it had been rubbed with phosphorous. The sea was so highly luminous, that the tracks of the penguins were marked by a fiery wake, and the darkness of the sky was momentarily illuminated by the most vivid lightning. In Two Years Before
448-555: Is a tradition that as a youth Pigafetta sailed the Mediterranean with the Knights of Rhodes but there is no record of such activity, only the observation that he later became a member of the order. At some point he entered into the service of papal ambassador Francesco Chiericati , an apostolic protonotary and a close associate of Pope Leo X . Like Pigafetta, Chiericati was also from Vicenza. In 1518, Leo X sent Chiericati to
504-660: Is also described in The Lusiads , the epic account of Vasco da Gama 's voyages of discovery. Robert Burton wrote of St. Elmo's fire in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621): "Radzivilius, the Lithuanian duke, calls this apparition Sancti Germani sidus ; and saith moreover that he saw the same after in a storm, as he was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes". This refers to the voyage made by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł in 1582–1584. On 9 May 1605, while on
560-823: Is also referenced in Homeric Hymn 33 to the Dioscuri who were from Homeric times associated with it. Whether the Homeric Hymn antedates the Alcaeus fragment is unknown. The phenomenon appears to be described first in the Gesta Herwardi , written around 1100 and concerning an event of the 1070s. However, one of the earliest direct references to St. Elmo's fire made in fiction can be found in Ludovico Ariosto 's epic poem Orlando Furioso (1516). It
616-496: Is located in the 17th canto (19th in the revised edition of 1532) after a storm has punished the ship of Marfisa , Astolfo , Aquilant, Grifon, and others, for three straight days, and is positively associated with hope: But now St. Elmo's fire appeared, which they had so longed for, it settled at the bows of a fore stay, the masts and yards all being gone, and gave them hope of calmer airs. In William Shakespeare 's The Tempest (c. 1623), Act I, Scene II, St. Elmo's fire acquires
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#1732783540859672-557: Is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano's voyage. Pigafetta was born to a prominent noble family in the city of Vicenza in northeast Italy. Recent archival research indicates that his father was Giovanni Pigafetta and his mother was a noblewoman named Lucia, daughter of Marco Muzan. The couple was married in March 1492, implying that Antonio was born sometime after that date. Details of his education are unknown but he later boasted of having "read many books". There
728-1476: Is very strange!" said Emily. "My fellow-guard," continued the man, "has the same flame on his arms; he says he has sometimes seen it before...he says it is an omen, lady, and bodes no good." Glossary of meteorology Also actiniform . Also adiabatic warming . Also barometric pressure . Sometimes called aerology . Also simply called an area forecast . Also baroclinicity . Also barotropicity . Also clear ice . Also blocking high and blocking anticyclone . Also standing cloud . Also castellatus . Also pilot balloon or pibal . Also climate science . Also irisation . Also cloud genus . Also saddle point and neutral point . Also cold spell and cold snap . Also vortex Crow instability . Also red adaptation goggles . Also daybreak . Also dewpoint or dew-point . Also non-adiabatic process . Also simply diffuse radiation . Also diurnal range . Also drouth . Also heat storm . Also duster or duststorm . Also atmometer . Also fetch length . Also fire devil and fire tornado . Also pyrocumulus and fire cloud . Also beaver's tail . Also white rainbow , mist bow , and cloud bow . Also foehn wind . Also front-flank downdraft . Often used interchangeably with scud . Also simply called
784-486: The Cebuano language . It is the first recorded document concerning the language . Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who made the complete trip, returning to Spain in 1522, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano , out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier. These men completed the first circumnavigation of the world while others mutinied and returned in the first year. Pigafetta's surviving journal
840-590: The F scale . Also glazed frost . Also soft hail and snow pellets . Also gust front tornado . Also tropical cell . Also Lower Atmosphere Severity Index . Also apparent temperature , felt air temperature , and humiture . Also velocity diagram . Also huayco . Also the doldrums or the calms . Also simply jet . Also jet stream core or jet maximum . Also George's index . Antonio Pigafetta Antonio Pigafetta ( Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo piɡaˈfetta] ; c. 1491 – c. 1531)
896-549: The Gothic novel . For example, in Ann Radcliffe 's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), during a thunderstorm above the ramparts of the castle: "And what is that tapering of light you bear?" said Emily, "see how it darts upwards,—and now it vanishes!" "This light, lady," said the soldier, "has appeared to-night as you see it, on the point of my lance, ever since I have been on watch; but what it means I cannot tell." "This
952-548: The crash of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin's LZ 129 Hindenburg on 6 May 1937, Professor Mark Heald (1892–1971) of Princeton saw St. Elmo's Fire flickering along the airship's back. Standing outside the main gate to the Naval Air Station, he watched, together with his wife and son, as the airship approached the mast and dropped her bow lines. A minute thereafter, by Heald's estimation, he first noticed
1008-751: The "Report on the First Voyage Around the World" ( Italian : Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo ), which was composed in Italian and was distributed to European monarchs in handwritten form before it was eventually published by Italian historian Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1550–59. The account centers on the events in the Mariana Islands and the Philippines , although it included several maps of other areas as well, including
1064-695: The Dismal Element foaming all round us Shocking to see with a Cormesant Hanging at the Maintop mast Head the Seamen was here Shock'd when a flash of Lightning came Burst the Cormesant & Struck two of the Seamen for several Hours Stone Blind & several much hurt in their Eyes. While the exact nature of these weather phenomena cannot be certain, they appear to be mostly about two observations of St. Elmo's fire with perhaps some ball lightning and even
1120-845: The Earth's atmosphere cause St. Elmo's fire to fluoresce with blue or violet light; this is similar to the mechanism that causes neon lights to glow, albeit at a different colour due to the different gas involved. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin hypothesized that a pointed iron rod would light up at the tip during a lightning storm, similar in appearance to St. Elmo's fire. In an August 2020 paper, researchers in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics demonstrated that St. Elmo's fire behaves differently in airborne objects versus grounded structures. They show that electrically isolated structures accumulate charge more effectively in high wind, in contrast to
1176-498: The French versions of Pigafetta's book, J. Dénucé extensively studied them and published a critical edition. At the end of his book, Pigafetta stated that he had given a copy to Charles V . Pigafetta's close friend, Francesco Chiericati, also stated that he had received a copy and it is thought that the regent of France may have received a copy of the latter. It has been argued that the copy Pigafetta had provided may have been merely
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#17327835408591232-707: The Iron at the Yard Arms about the Size of the blaze of a Candle.' The location of this event was in the South Atlantic sailing from Cape Horn, (having failed to round the cape in the winter months), en route to Cape of Good Hope and west of Tristan da Cunha. The log records the ship's location as: Latd. 42°:34'S, Longd (by the time keeper K2) as 34°:38'W. Reference: Log of the Proceedings of His Majestys Ship Bounty in
1288-642: The Mast , Richard Henry Dana Jr. , (1815–1882) describes seeing a corposant in the horse latitudes of the northern Atlantic Ocean. However, he may have been talking about ball lightning; as mentioned earlier, it is often erroneously identified as St. Elmo's fire: The observation by R. H. Dana of this phenomenon in Two Years Before the Mast is a straightforward description of an extraordinary experience apparently only known to mariners and airline pilots. There, directly over where we had been standing, upon
1344-468: The approval of the papal ambassador and King Charles, Pigafetta was provided with letters of introduction before he set out for Seville in May 1519. Magellan accepted his application to join the expedition and hired him for a modest monthly salary of 1,000 maravedís . He was enrolled under the name Antonio Lombardo and his position was described as one of the "servants of the captain and supernumeraries". When
1400-526: The atmosphere all about us may set it off? I express my fears to Captain Bock, who seems nonchalant and imperturbed at the controls. He quickly reassures me: "It is a familiar phenomenon seen often on ships. I have seen it many times on bombing missions. It is known as St. Elmo's Fire." One of the earliest references to the phenomenon appears in Alcaeus 's Fragment 34a about the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux . It
1456-530: The corona discharge observed in grounded structures. Researchers at Rutgers University have devised a method to generate vacuum ultraviolet light using different forms of lighting, by employing sharp conductive needles placed within a dense gas, such as xenon, contained in a cell. They achieve this by applying a high negative voltage to the needles in the xenon-filled cell, resulting in the efficient production of vacuum ultraviolet light. St. Elmo's Fire being similar, they believe it could be used as lighting but with
1512-619: The effect while aboard the Beagle . He wrote of the episode in a letter to J. S. Henslow that one night when the Beagle was anchored in the estuary of the Río de la Plata : Everything is in flames – the sky with lightning, the water with luminous particles , and even the very masts are pointed with a blue flame. He also describes the above night in his book The Voyage of the Beagle : On
1568-418: The effect, a blue or violet glow around the object, often accompanied by a hissing or buzzing sound, is proportional to the strength of the electric field and therefore noticeable primarily during thunderstorms or volcanic eruptions . St. Elmo's fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formia (also known as St. Elmo), the patron saint of sailors. The phenomenon, which can warn of an imminent lightning strike ,
1624-462: The expedition set sail in August 1519, Pigafetta was assigned to the flagship Trinidad where he served Magellan and became his great admirer. Pigafetta did not appear to have any specific role except to keep a daily record of his observations, a task that he undertook with great diligence. He recorded extensive information concerning the geography, climate, and natural history of the places visited by
1680-406: The expedition. He was especially interested in the native inhabitants encountered along the way and took meticulous notes on their appearance, social customs and languages. In contrast to the accuracy of his personal observations, he had a tendency to accept even the most outrageous tales told to him about the lands they visited. Pigafetta was wounded on Mactan in the Philippines , where Magellan
1736-557: The first edition, given that the original text was lost, though it is believed that it might have been written in the author's Venetian dialect, mixed with Spanish and Italian. The remaining sources of his voyage were extensively studied by Italian archivist Andrea da Mosto , who wrote a critical study of Pigafetta's book in 1898 ( Il primo viaggio intorno al globo di Antonio Pigafetta e le sue regole sull'arte del navigare ) and whose conclusions were later confirmed by J. Dénucé. Today, three printed books and four manuscripts survive. One of
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1792-420: The first known use of the word "Pacific Ocean" ( Oceano Pacifico ) on a map. The original document was not preserved. However, it was not through Pigafetta's writings that Europeans first learned of the circumnavigation of the globe. Rather, it was through an account written by a Flanders -based writer Maximilianus Transylvanus , which was published in 1523. Transylvanus had been instructed to interview some of
1848-450: The ground underneath. A local electric field of about 100 kV/m is required to begin a discharge in moist air. The magnitude of the electric field depends greatly on the geometry (shape and size) of the object. Sharp points lower the necessary voltage because electric fields are more concentrated in areas of high curvature , so discharges preferentially occur and are more intense at the ends of pointed objects. The nitrogen and oxygen in
1904-427: The luminous appearance somewhat longer. I could observe an immense number of minute sparks darting towards the horse's ears and the margin of my hat, which produced a very beautiful appearance, and I was sorry to be so soon deprived of it. The atmosphere in this neighbourhood appeared to be very highly electrified for eight or ten days about this time. Thunder was heard occasionally from 15th to 23rd, during which time
1960-409: The main top-gallant mast-head, was a ball of light, which the sailors name a corposant ( corpus sancti ), and which the mate had called out to us to look at. They were all watching it carefully, for sailors have a notion that if the corposant rises in the rigging it is a sign of fair weather , but if it comes lower down, there will be a storm. Unfortunately, as an omen, it came down, and showed itself on
2016-793: The original version of Pigafetta's manuscript was in French or Italian, though it was probably in Italian. The most complete manuscript, and the one that is supposed to be more closely related to the original manuscript, is the one found by Carlo Amoretti inside the Biblioteca Ambrosiana , Milan and published in 1800 ( Primo viaggio intorno al globo terraqueo, ossia ragguaglio della navigazione alle Indie Orientali per la via d'Occidente fatta dal cavaliere Antonio Pigafetta patrizio vicentino, sulla squadra del capitano Magaglianes negli anni 1519-1522 ). Unfortunately, Amoretti, in his printed edition, modified many words and sentences whose meaning
2072-491: The plexiglass windows in the nose of the ship, and on the tips of the giant wings it looked as though we were riding the whirlwind through space on a chariot of blue fire. It was, I surmised, a surcharge of static electricity that had accumulated on the tips of the propellers and on the dielectric material in the plastic windows. One's thoughts dwelt anxiously on the precious cargo in the invisible ship ahead of us. Was there any likelihood of danger that this heavy electric tension in
2128-585: The royal court in Spain to serve as ambassador. Pigafetta accompanied the ambassador's retinue, first to Zaragoza for two months and then to Barcelona. While in Spain, Pigafetta heard of Magellan's planned expedition to find a western route to the Spice Islands. The adventure appealed to him and he convinced Chiericati that his participation on this historic voyage would be advantageous for the Vatican. With
2184-647: The second voyage of John Davis commanded by Sir Edward Michelborne to the East Indies, an unknown writer aboard the Tiger describes the phenomenon: "In the extremity of our storm appeared to us in the night, upon our maine Top-mast head, a flame about the bigness of a great Candle, which the Portugals call Corpo Sancto , holding it a most divine token that when it appeareth the worst is past. As, thanked be God, we had better weather after it". Pierre Testu-Brissy
2240-491: The state of the weather, it is not to be thought that such an appearance can have been at all frequent, and none of them to have observed it. Weeks earlier, reportedly on 17 January 1817, a luminous snowstorm occurred in Vermont and New Hampshire. Saint Elmo's fire appeared as static discharges on roof peaks, fence posts, and the hats and fingers of people. Thunderstorms prevailed over central New England. Charles Darwin noted
2296-457: The survivors of the voyage when Magellan's surviving ship, Victoria , returned to Spain in September 1522 under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano. After Magellan and Elcano's voyage, Pigafetta utilized the connections he had made prior to the voyage with the Knights of Rhodes to achieve membership in the order. Antonio Pigafetta also wrote a book, in which a detailed account of the voyage
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2352-586: The three books is in French, while the remaining two are in the Italian language. Of the four manuscripts, three are in French (two stored in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and one in Cheltenham ), and one in Italian. From a philological point of view, the French editions seem to derive from an Italian original version, while the remaining Italian editions seem to derive from a French original version. Because of this, it remains quite unclear whether
2408-513: The topgallant yardarm. We were off the yard in good season, for it is held as a fatal sign to have the pale light of the corposant thrown upon one's face. Nikola Tesla created St. Elmo's fire in 1899 while testing a Tesla coil at his laboratory in Colorado Springs, Colorado , United States. St. Elmo's fire was seen around the coil and was said to have lit up the wings of butterflies with blue halos as they flew around. A minute before
2464-454: The two epitaphs of the Ming treasure voyages , where they made a reference to St. Elmo's fire as a divine omen of Tianfei , the goddess of sailors and seafarers. The power of the goddess, having indeed been manifested in previous times, has been abundantly revealed in the present generation. In the midst of the rushing waters it happened that, when there was a hurricane, suddenly a divine lantern
2520-440: The weather was very unsteady: frequent showers of hail, snow, rain, &c. I can find no person in this quarter who remembers to have ever seen the luminous appearance mentioned above, before this season, – or such a quantity of lightning darting across the heavens, – nor who have heard so much thunder at that season of the year. This country being all stocked with sheep, and the herds having frequent occasion to pay attention to
2576-442: The whole heavens"]. It was about nine o'clock, P.M. I had no sooner got on horseback than I observed the tips of both the horse's ears to be quite luminous: the edges of my hat had the same appearance. I was soon deprived of these luminaries by a shower of moist snow which immediately began to fall. The horse's ears soon became wet and lost their luminous appearance; but the edges of my hat, being longer of getting wet, continued to give
2632-610: Was a Venetian scholar and explorer. In 1519, he joined the Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan , the world's first circumnavigation , and is best known for being the chronicler of the voyage. During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant until Magellan's death in the Philippine Islands , and kept an accurate journal, which later assisted him in translating
2688-468: Was a pioneering French balloonist . On 18 June 1786, he flew for 11 hours and made the first electrical observations as he ascended into thunderclouds. He stated that he drew remarkable discharges from the clouds by means of an iron rod carried in the basket. He also experienced Saint Elmo's fire. William Bligh recorded in his log on Sunday 4 May 1788, on board HMS Bounty of 'Mutiny On The Bounty' fame: 'Corpo-Sant. Some electrical Vapour seen about
2744-772: Was first seen by our Captain when followed a Heavy Clap of Thunder & Lightning which occasioned it to fall & Burst on the Main Deck the Electrific of the Bursting of this Ball of Fire had such power as to shake several of their Leg not only On the Main Deck as the fire Hung much round the smith Forge being Iron but had the same Effect on the Gun Deck & Orlop [deck] on several of the Convicts. 25 July 1799 : We were now sourounded with Heavy Thunder & Lightning and
2800-403: Was given. Although the text is written in semi-chronological order, it does not read as a linear history of the voyage. Rather, it is a collection of descriptions, events, translations of foreign languages, thoughts, and illustrations. The resulting work is therefore described as being unusually personal for the times. It is unclear when it was first published and what language had been used in
2856-655: Was in the Southern Ocean midway between Cape Town and Sydney and the second was in the Tasman Sea , a day out of Port Jackson : 26 June 1799 : At 4 Began to Blow very Hard with Heavy Shower of Rain & Hail and Extraordinary Heavy Clap of Thunder & Lightning when fell a Cormesant [corposant] a Body of Fire which collect from the Lightning & Lodge itself in the Foretopmast Head where it
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#17327835408592912-674: Was killed in the Battle of Mactan in April 1521. Nevertheless, he recovered and was among the 18 who accompanied Juan Sebastián Elcano on board the Victoria on the return voyage to Spain. Upon reaching port in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the modern Province of Cadiz in September 1522, three years after his departure, Pigafetta returned to the Republic of Venice. He related his experiences in
2968-442: Was regarded by sailors with awe and sometimes considered to be a good omen. St. Elmo's fire is a reproducible and demonstrable form of plasma . The electric field around the affected object causes ionization of the air molecules, producing a faint glow easily visible in low-light conditions. Conditions that can generate St. Elmo's fire are present during thunderstorms, when high-voltage differentials are present between clouds and
3024-521: Was reported by The New York Times reporter William L. Laurence on 9 August 1945, as he was aboard a plane following Bockscar on the way to Nagasaki . I noticed a strange, eerie light coming through the window high above in the Navigator's cabin and as I peered through the dark all around us I saw a startling phenomenon. The whirling giant propellers had somehow become great luminous discs of blue flame. The same luminous blue flame appeared on
3080-550: Was seen shining at the masthead, and as soon as that miraculous light appeared the danger was appeased, so that even in the peril of capsizing one felt reassured and that there was no cause for fear. Mention of St. Elmo's fire can be found in Antonio Pigafetta 's journal of his voyage with Ferdinand Magellan . St. Elmo's fire, also known as "corposants" or "corpusants" from the Portuguese corpo santo ("holy body"),
3136-452: Was uncertain (the original manuscript contained many words in Veneto dialect and some Spanish words). The modified version published by Amoretti was then translated into other languages carrying into them Amoretti's edits. Andrea da Mosto critically analyzed the original version stored in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and published this rigorous version of Pigafetta's book in 1894. Regarding
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