Re: Close lightning strike and strange tick (fwd)

["High Voltage list" <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 13:30:43 -0600 (MDT)
From: Chip Atkinson <chip@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Close lightning strike and strange tick (fwd)

No, the sound was definitely not a sharp crack like a spark or anything.
It was more porcelain or plasticky sounding.  Plus since it coincided as
closely as I could tell with the flash but the flash and boom were
separated by a noticeable difference in time I think the click sound was
"right there", be it in my head or the surrounding environment.

There wasn't any metal other than two residential size mail boxes within
around 10' and I was just in a residential neighborhood.

I've heard about meteors making sounds in the grass as the long-wave rf(?)
rustles it too.  

I think I'll buy the microwave auditory phenomenon first since the sound
seemed to not come from a specific direction either.  

Chip

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007, High Voltage list wrote:

> Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:21:58 -0500
> From: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Close lightning strike and strange tick (fwd)
> 
> High Voltage list wrote:
> > Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > 
> Hi Chip,
> 
> I had the same experience several years ago, under very similar 
> circumstances. I heard it as a "tick" or "click", very similar to your 
> description. It was a quick, short click, but considerably "duller" than 
>   the sharp snap of an electric spark, and it was simultaneous with the 
> first flash.
> 
> One possibility is that you an incomplete upward leader from a very 
> nearby object. However, I don't think this was the case, since the sound 
> was not a sharp, spark-like crack. Another possibility is that, with the 
> main discharge, the nearby electrical field suddenly changed. This might 
> cause a sudden movement of leaves on trees, blades of grass, etc. 
> However, I wouldn't expect the noise to be a brief "tick" since the area 
> affected by the E-field change would be fairly large and the sound more 
> distributed.
> 
> Another possibility, and the one I suspect, is that you actually 
> detected the electromagnetic impulse from the lightning strike itself. 
> If so, it may be related to a phenomenon known as the "microwave 
> auditory phenomenon" (also known as the "microwave hearing" or "Frey 
> Effect"). This occurs when humans (and some animals) are subjected to 
> short impulses of microwave radiation. The exact mechanism(s) are not 
> completely understood. Some theories invoke thermal-acoustic pulse, 
> which is induced within the water in your soft tissues and then detected 
> by your inner ear. Other research implies that there may be more direct 
> detection processes going on within the brain itself. For a pulsed 
> microwave signal, the "sound" that is heard is a click coincident with 
> the leading edge of the pulse. Changing the parameters of the pulse can 
> change the sound, and audio modulated words can also be detected... 
> sounding sort of like a Cylon (robot-like).
> 
> There is no doubt that the above effects are real and repeatable for 
> microwave and radar pulses... perhaps for lightning RF impulses as well??
> 
> Bert
> -- 
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