2023 proved to be an active year for lightning in the northern High Plains. As a member of the International Lightning Physics Group, I operated a Phantom v2012 high-speed camera on loan from Marcelo Saba, INPE, Brazil. The goal was to get familiar with the camera, and as a top priority, capture lightning attachment to wind turbines at the Willow Creek Windfarm near Newell, South Dakota. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and I was able to document upward lightning from both the windfarm and from the towers in Rapid City.
Other highlights include numerous multiple termination point negative cloud-to-ground lightning flashes, two physically interesting positive cloud-to-ground flashes in the Badlands, lightning near Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower, a very photogenic isolated nighttime storm near Wall, SD and other scenic storms around the Black Hills of South Dakota. In addition, transient luminous events were recorded on two nights from the ZT Research Observatory.
Many flashes were captured with both the v2012 and the Miro 320s that will be analyzed by other members of the group. Most of v2012 captures were made at 50,000 images per second (ips) at a resolution of 768×368 using a Rokinon 24 mm f/1.8 lens. The Miro was operated at 1920×1080 resolution at 1,500 ips using a Nikon 12-24mm f/2.8 lens.
Below you will find links to YouTube videos with highlights recorded in realtime and 1,500 ips using the Miro 320s.
Transient Luminous Events were captured from the ZT Research Observatory on two nights. Recordings are below.