Video of huge burst of light in Russia

[DaveC426913]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/what-was-weird-flash-over-russia

On the evening of Friday, November 14, citizens near Russia’s Sverdlovsk region saw a large orange burst of light. There was not an immediately obvious cause for this giant flash in the sky. Was it another asteroid? A meteor? A munitions explosion?

Ideas on most likely cause?

 

[Bystander]

Elapsed time of event from dark to dark, magnitude, and optical conditions? Meteorite/bolide. Leonid? Or, stray.

 

[NTW]

Incidents at high-voltage transforming stations are not usually big news, but produce spectacular arcing, visible many kilometers away, specially with cloud cover, as is the case here...

 

[Evo]

In that last video, you can see faint bursts of orange in the moments before the huge burst, which makes me think meteorite. If you saw the video I posted of the meteor over Austin, TX about a week ago, it had small bursts then a huge burst before disappearing.

 

[nsaspook]

It seems to be a ground based event judging from the light cone from the ground to sky at 0:18.

 

[Evo]

They did not show that snippet of footage in the two videos in the first post. That does look like it was ground based and reflecting up against the clouds instead of being above the clouds as one scientist said.

 

[nsaspook]

Seems too slow to be a munitions explosion. My guess would be a large LNG tank explosion or something like that. The boiling liquid from a smaller fire creates a large gas cloud that burns quickly to nothing when the tank ruptures.

 

[Evo]

That would explain the denial, something exploded that wasn't supposed to, so they deny it happened.

 

[Bystander]

Just ran it up on Gargoyle Earth --- kinda out in the boonies.

 

[DaveC426913]

A few things of note:
- no mention or recording of a bang or shockwave, at least not in those short clips
- it sure fades away fast, like really fast
- at 0:24s, as it fades, you can see the bright stationary dot right on the horizon for just a second

No idea what any of these might mean.

 

[nsaspook]

No matter what happened I'm thinking vodka might have been involved.

 

[dragoneyes001]

I'm inclined to think large gas burn the flare up time would be about right for a warehouse going up.

you definitely see ground flame which looks much wider at first a factory igniting could spread like that. what sucks is if this is a factory bursting into flame just how many people were hurt by it?

 

[Astronuc]

It seems to be a ground based event judging from the light cone from the ground to sky at 0:18.

The video reminds me of a large gas pipeline failure and explosion that I felt from about 30 miles away. About 36+ years ago, I was doing homework late at night, when I saw the sky to the south light up. Moments later, I heard the windows rattling and felt a rumble. The following day, the local news reported a major (~1 m or so) gas pipeline explosion.

 

[Bystander]

Out in the boonies with a couple nice ponds/lakes in vicinity --- haven't swung down to low obliques of them from roads in the area, but reflections could be nice imitations of surface catastrophes.

 

[DaveC426913]

Out in the boonies with a couple nice ponds/lakes in vicinity --- haven't swung down to low obliques of them from roads in the area, but reflections could be nice imitations of surface catastrophes.

I am having quite a bit of trouble parsing that sentence fragment, let alone figure out what it's trying to contribute.

 

[Bystander]

I am having quite a bit of trouble parsing that sentence fragment, let alone figure out what it's trying to contribute.

From previous comment on Google Earth, "boonies," and later, looking again at the area, noting the number of lakes or ponds within eyeshot of roads. Further, I note that I have not examined the low oblique viewing feature for possibilities of reflections from those bodies of water.

 

[DaveC426913]

From previous comment on Google Earth, "boonies," and later, looking again at the area, noting the number of lakes or ponds within eyeshot of roads. Further, I note that I have not examined the low oblique viewing feature for possibilities of reflections from those bodies of water.

Ah. The missing, critical element is that you are "flying" using Google Earth.

Without that, both your posts read like you are tripping.

 

[Bystander]

Ah. The missing, critical element is that you are "flying" using Google Earth.

I was being deliberately cute with the first post and identified the source of the "boonies" information as "Gargoyle Earth." That must have been clipped when I was switching back and forth from screen to screen --- sometimes PF saves my partial replies for additions, and sometimes it doesn't --- this was one of the "doesn'ts," and I didn't catch it --- it really does look cryptic.

 

[dragoneyes001]

the video i took the screen shot from has a few seconds of ground flames its unmistakeable for a reflection from a ground pond or water the angles wrong for it with the trees. I would be very surprised if a meteor hit the ground the sky and ground effects would be reversed at least according to the one video which shows both simultaneously in the shot.

 

[zoki85]

I guess such things are not so rare in Russia:

 

[DaveC426913]

I was being deliberately cute with the first post and identified the source of the "boonies" information as "Gargoyle Earth."

No, I understood both terms, it was just that I didn't make the connection to oblique angles and such without the 'flying' connection. ;) Been a while since I've used Google Earth and I sort just thought Google maps.

 

[B0b-A]

Night launch ? , ( see 1min 55sec on Youtube v=xiGl-gQxrZU ] ...

 

[DaveC426913]

Night launch ? , ( see 1min 55sec)

OK, but how do you explain the very notable lack of everything from 2:03 onward?

 

[B0b-A]

OK, but how do you explain the very notable lack of everything from 2:03 onward?

On the amateur-video of the NASA night-launch I posted a link to, there is gross overexposure at 2:03 , that's why it becomes featureless.

Up until 2:03 it looks similar to the Russian video , but with much more cloud-cover on the Russian one.

 

[nsaspook]

On the amateur-video of the NASA night-launch I posted a link to, there is gross overexposure at 2:03 , that's why it becomes featureless.

Up until 2:03 it looks similar to the Russian video , but with much more cloud-cover on the Russian one.

It's only similar because there is a a large flame on the ground in both at the start but I see nothing like a flame rising into the air with a large gap between the ground on the Russian video.

 

[B0b-A]

It's only similar because there is a a large flame on the ground in both at the start but I see nothing like a flame rising into the air with a large gap between the ground on the Russian video.

Clouds reflecting and obstructing the light, depending on their position, could explain that.
The the amateur video of the NASA night launch I posted is cloud-free.

 

[nsaspook]

Clouds reflecting and obstructing the light, depending on their position, could explain that.
The the amateur video of the NASA night launch I posted is cloud-free.

From a cell phone so the video quality is similar. IMO the launch signature is pretty clear here and nonexistent in the Russian video.

 

[zyxwv99]

A while back an asteroid expert gave a presentation at the Commonwealth Club of California. He said the military put up sensors all over the world to detect the sound of nuclear explosions, even thousands of miles away from the nearest sensor. After 10 years they abandoned the project, but not before getting some good data on asteroids that explode harmlessly in the atmosphere. Apparently we get an average of 10 per year with a yield of at least 1 kiloton, with something like a 10 kiloton asteroid every 14 months. I may not have remembered to numbers right, but it was something like that. Apparently we had a pretty big one off the coast of Northern California a few years ago, big enough to light up the sky and make headlines.

This is just the beauty of nature.

As for what happened in Russia in this incident, that's a different story. Until there's some solid information, all we can do is speculate.

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/eve...arth-asteroids-why-we-may-not-see-them-coming

 

[B0b-A]

From a cell phone so the video quality is similar. IMO the launch signature is pretty clear here and nonexistent in the Russian video.

Simulate clouds by viewing that YouTube through a piece of paper held an inch off the screen, then it looks more like the Russian video.

 

[nsaspook]

Simulate clouds by viewing that YouTube through a piece of paper held an inch off the screen, then it looks more like the Russian video.

I think I'll drink a beer instead to adjust my vision.