| This is good news for Indian govt - if it can harness lightening -- for use as electricity for home use. If I remember correctly one lightening bolt has enough charge to light up New York City entirely for a month. No need for foreign oil and nuclear proliferation etc like Chernobyl http://www.chernobyl.info/ http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/04/26/chernobyl.anniversary/index.html Umesh |
Pradip Kumar Datta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Lightning in NE among highest in the world
By Prabal Kr Das
GUWAHATI, April 26 Not many would be aware, but many parts of the Brahmaputra valley along with some other areas of North-East India have lightning activity close to the highest in the world. While the highest lighting density of nearly135 days per year has been reported from parts of Central and Southern Africa, the US and South East Asia, in the Brahmaputra valley it is around 120 days every year. Moreover, lighting activity in the valley is spread over a long period beginning from March to September.
Lightning manifests in two forms cloud to cloud and cloud to ground. A direct lightning strike usually kills a person, although immediate resuscitation has been known to revive stricken persons. Ground strikes on unprotected electrical system result in heavy damage.
Several fatalities are reported due to lightning deaths from the North-east every year. In India, the number of deaths caused by lightning strikes in a year is close to 1,500, perhaps the largest casualty caused by any weather phenomenon. In this situation, awareness, safety and protection related to the phenomenon is a concern that needs to be addressed by scientists, engineers as well as administrators.
At present, however, there is hardly any brainstorming going on in this area, and neither have any measures been taken to make the common person aware of lightening safety. Even though some scientists have done individual research, no group or institution has collated and interpreted data on lightning activity in the region. The result is a vacuum of knowledge and awareness that needs to be filled.
Two authorities on lightning and the high voltage associated with it, Prof Ravindra Aurora and Dr Chandima Gomes, speaking to The Assam Tribune recently, agreed that there was an immediate need to make people aware about lightning safety in this region. Precious lives could be saved, and electrical and electronic materials protected, if knowledge on lightning safety could be made easily accessible to the masses.
According to Prof Aurora of IIT Kanpur, many fatalities due to lightning strike occur after people seek refuge below tall and isolated trees in open spaces. One must also ensure that one is not in an elevated position.
In case a person or group is in open terrain, taking refuge under metallic objects is dangerous. Taking refuge under a metallic shade with wooden posts is equally unsafe.
Dr Gomes, the Director of South Asian Lightning Information and Resources Institute, Colombo, said that any metallic object like the metallic tip of an umbrella carried by a person could attract a lightning strike. There have been instances, where the aluminium frame of a hikers backpack has been hit by lightning.
Another common advise on lightning safety is not to venture into a large water body on a boat. The boat and its occupants usually attract lightning strikes, and several such cases are reported every year.
Professor Aurora and Dr Gomes, who were in the city to attend a workshop on lightning organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), recommend that there should be efforts to disseminate information on lightning strikes among engineers managing distribution and transmission networks. Similarly, electricians making domestic wirings also need to be trained on lightning protection measures.
Otherwise, unprotected distribution lines could carry power surge after a lightning strike that can damage or destroy valuable appliances and computer systems. Surge protection devices are a must to shield domestic and industrial circuits from lightning strikes.
They hope that the workshop on lightning would pave the way for setting up a new lightning awareness centre affiliated to TERI at Guwahati. It would document lightning activity in the North-east, and evolve a strategy to disseminate awareness among the local population. Later the centre would be able to carry out research on the phenomenon, which is among the most powerful forces of nature.
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Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
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Class of 2005
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