Natural Radio From Lightning Sounds INCREDIBLE- VLF Radio

[@Afrotechmods]

"Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?"

[@GoldSrc_]

Yes :D

[@jared6208]

May I see it?

[@Gameboygenius]

_> ... no.

[@dioszegizoltan4493]

You’re alive ?

[@dominator167able]

@@GoldSrc_ RISE AND SHINE DR FREEMAN

[@stormchaser8576]

As a child, I used to go to the clearest AM radio station if storms were near and listen for loud crunches in the signal. Would give me an idea how powerful the thunderstorms coming were.

[@vladd9344]

Me too!

[@AldoSchmedack]

Same!

[@josephkanowitz6875]

ב''ה, pretty much every receiver ever doesn't need a carrier present for this; some detail on how the broadband noise 'emulates' one to result in the audio output would be a nice demonstration of receiver theory.

[@VoidHalo]

20 years ago I had a set of Harman/Kardon speakers on my computer that would crackle every time there was lightning. I don't know if it was my sound card picking it up or if the wires were acting like big antennas and those were picking it up.

[@JohnSmith-one]

Every video is like science paper or a bachelor's diploma. You're a very motivated man, wish you luck and never lose your enthusiasm and curiosity)

[@thedoctor2102]

When I used to have a 27Mhz cb radio, I liked to switch it on during a thunderstorm and listen to the lightning coming through the radiofrequencies. I could also hear the whistles from sunspots or solar flares and chirps from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere or magnetosphere.

[@lightsupportweapon]

sounds that go “TWEEP!” linearly when you receive with single sideband are likely ionosondes

[@josephkanowitz6875]

@@lightsupportweapon ב''ה, wave height radar is another common one on SW.

[@VoidHalo]

I thought whistles were ionized air from meteors entering the atmosphere from space. I've heard radio broadcasts of the ionization from meteors and it sounded very similar. The amplitude is very much like the brightness as it lights up, peaks, then fades away.

[@thedoctor2102]

@@VoidHalo If you ever get a chance and have an old 27mghz CB in you car (like a HMV Roadhound) , park up near the seaside side somewhere and throw one end of a coax in the water, the other in the back the CB. Now sit and listen, go through the channels and side bands if you wish to, but I would avoid transmitting on it. I found the that RG213 coax (if it still available ) is great for it.

[@paulbishop9896]

While growing up, my dad had a portable SW/MW receiver, and I loved finding sferics.. found great amusement, great memories

[@AsymptoteInverse]

I've been fascinated by the idea of listening to electromagnetic signals for years. For those interested, it seems to be possible to hear the noise local lightning makes by tuning to an otherwise empty spot on the AM radio band. In my car, I've picked up what I think is the noise of lightning (sharp bursts of static), the hum from powerlines, and noises from those vehicle-detection loops in roads. And a handheld AM/FM radio will pick up stuff like the noise from switch-mode power supplies quite nicely, too.

[@emrilbennett8704]

Ah cool!

[@maglight117]

Oh man you did a video on the thing that got me into HAM radio! One book I've found that is basically an atlas of things you see in VLF is "Whistlers and Related Ionospheric Phenomena" by Robert A. Helliwell. Dover sells reprints on it and I definitely recommend it to anyone into VLF. It covers everything from whistlers to sferics.

[@rodrigo_dm]

Man let me tell you this: Your channel inspired me to create one on my own. Like you said I should in the comment section months ago. You inspire us all with your research and projects. You are much appreciated. Thank you for the QUALITY content. cheers!

[@filonin2]

7:27 I like that you're using future Earth with a flooded Amazon and Greenland and no Florida.

[@thethoughtemporium]

I wish I'd gone with an amazon on fire instead tbh.

[@filonin2]

@@thethoughtemporium The flooding will maybe make it into a nice inland swamp after it's all been burned? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@brendancarlson1678]

Do we, as a planet, really need Florida?

[@mattshap9731]

tbh eliminating florida gets me hyped for glacial melting

[@DogsRNice]

Futureproofing it

[@jaymercy224]

As a kid, I built self-made telephone systems for our home and always wondered about that crackling noise that was on the line. Now I know what they are. Thank you!

[@atomipi]

Spark Transmitters! Were the first experiments in radio transmission.. can also create broadband noise which interfere with technology. I made one when I was about 12 in the 80's with an oldschool relay and battery with an aerial wire attached, vibrating in a soundproof box to annoy my new stepdad watching HIS show on my (family room) TV. haha.. all through his show, the screen would be static, but my channel was perfect.. (turned relay spark transmitter box off) hehe.

[@ryPish]

So... Thunderbirds are real? I knew it!!!

[@EzeePosseTV]

FAB

[@nixietubes]

If Pontiac made an electric car

[@MrZylix-6]

Ry P OMG!

[@KoKo-gm1kq]

@@EzeePosseTV j

[@Emilmarch]

😅 they are mate.

[@TwisterKidMedia]

VLF is the fundamental principle for all the lightning detection systems we meteorologists use. Lightning tells us a ton about how strong the updrafts and downdrafts are in thunderstorms. Lightning jumps can help predict tornadoes as well.

[@iansutherland4902]

This channel is a freakin' treasure trove. Good job being awesome, keep it up, please!

[@CyclesAreSingularities]

those sounds are crunchy as hell and i love it!

[@HavanaWoody]

The dynamic range of your interest is incredible , never a dull topic and always well documented.

[@tegrqbruh4158]

When i was younger i always found myself listening to MW and hearing the static noise that lightning strikes made. Good times.

[@jefflyon2020]

You hit that subject out of the park, home run! loved the breakdown whenever explaining the natural world and how things in it work.

[@novosprospectus882]

You can also see the RF of thunder/lightning using an SDR tuned into the HF spectrum.

[@Roxor128]

Even easier: Hook up a loop of wire into your sound card's microphone input.

[@fletcherreder6091]

Conspiracy theory: Justin is a machine, and none of the sounds were biological in origin.

[@ohboy1113]

What art style is that pfp? It seems vaguely reminiscent of “the true story of the three little pigs” and the illustrations in that book collection.

[@karhukivi]

Lightning generates a spectrum of noise, from the MF to the VLF band. The higher frequency noise pulses are attenuated more rapidly and this is a method of determining the distance to the strike. There are small devices tp clip on the belt for use outdoors, hiking, mountain climbing, golf etc, which detect the MF and LF noise and give an approximate distance.

[@K31TH3R]

A few years back before their takeover, when Wunderground's Wundermap rivaled professional meteorologist tools and wasn't a steaming pile of bloated garbage, they had an awesome lightning map which showed cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes. I always wondered how that was done. It seemed like black magic to me and I never managed to stumble upon the methodology. Thanks for finally answering my questions. Also, thanks for the links, I'm going to spend a lot of time listening to these in the background.

[@goon143]

Earth layin down the hot tracks.

[@Stakodron]

Wow the effort which goes into this video is amazing !!

[@M4CHINE69]

Fun fact if you take a headphone jack with a very long wire and plug it into the microphone then download a program called saqrx which is vlf software to view it then you can see vlf signals which is pretty cool. Edit: I recommend sdrsharp instead of saqrx since sdrsharp has more features

[@NikHYTWP]

Nice video, though I miss satellite content. I love seeing you pick up signals from equipment that's hundreds of miles away in space!

[@tonysolar284]

4:50 So lighting has been sending tweets long before any human ever did.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Or birds for that matter

[@charlieangkor8649]

its fun to connect a small photovoltaic panel to headphones. Then you can hear lightning strikes immediely. Each has very different sound. After hearing for a while you will know what kind of sound will produce a really hefty thunder several seconds later.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Never heard of that before, definitely will try

[@ingussilins6330]

I use VLF receiver with photodiode. It can pick up lighning, fireworks, small explosion flash ( from fireworks ).

[@prescott231233]

Aliens : *listens to the song of earth from outside our planet.* “They must do so much acid”

[@moncef0147]

Duuude, that's actually literally the Chidori sound.

[@LiborTinka]

I just peaked into comments to see a Chidori reference and I wasn't disappointed! kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6q0mmOEaN-ofbc

[@moncef0147]

@@zwordbirdb619 r/iamverysmart , you kmow that we arent born 30 right? The last time i watched naruto i was 15, i'm 27 now.

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

@@zwordbirdb619 I'm sure you have your own hobbies as well. And I bet you care about them greatly. 😊

[@inhumanfilth681]

@@zwordbirdb619 you are kind of a poon, did you know that?

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

@@zwordbirdb619 well that's something I guess

[@Xenro66]

A part of me really wants to get a VLF radio... But another part of me wants a hand held version specifically for man-made VLF emissions. A few years ago, I decided to chain a bunch of transistors together to make a long darlington chain, with a 15cm antenna... Damn, it was so interesting walking around the house with some earbuds plugged in, powered from a small battery and just pointing the antenna at things to hear their radio emissions.

[@CHASSYification]

How amazing!! The things most of us will never know about are just amazing..... wow

[@SinceNightmoon]

Amazing ! Good that KZbin Recommended ur Channel ur Voice is rly Calm and i love it to hear it! Keep it up!

[@slehar]

Wow! Deep knowledge! And excellent graphics! Thanks!

[@gustavgnoettgen]

Such a chirping also occurs when you strike metal bars, heavy cables under tension, and when MCU Whiplash uses his whips.

[@charlieangkor8649]

Gustav Gnöttgen when train is arriving I hear that from the rails in the station.

[@CHASSYification]

Yes I’ve heard that to, from the train tracks and I’m now thinking from the chair lift at the snow fields

[@gustavgnoettgen]

@@charlieangkor8649 yes! It's especially disturbing (=AWSOME) when the train rushes through

[@gustavgnoettgen]

@@CHASSYification I never used one, nice info!

[@univac2000]

You can hear bug’s wings also.

[@insightfool]

Love this! This video was so great. Thanks.

[@nerdyguyfatman]

I was trying to explain this to someone, your video did a way better job than I could

[@goon143]

17;03 "One last note", I love me some puns even if they may be unintentional .

[@3v068]

Hey man. I ended up seeing this video when it came out, and I recently got a HackRF One, and this allowed me to look for similar phenomena. Thanks for giving me something new and cool to look for!

[@witwisniewski2280]

I used to listen to VLF a lot. The trick was to either go to a desolate location (freeze to death in a car late at night) or use a repeater to send the sound to a more convenient place. It is very hard to predict the occurrence of VLF emissions and whistlers, therefore one should just record all night and later look at the spectrograms to reveal the interesting events. These days Audacity on any computer with a sound card can easily record for hundreds of hours at a time.

[@Wallrod]

Friggin cool video. Gonna fall asleep listening to space wind and cloud farts now.

[@qshad6973]

I'm a HAM radio operator because of you now ❤

[@jadengraner5004]

I like that the drawn earth (with magnetic field lines) is the 100 meter sea level rise representation, an excellent touch to keep the video accurate for future viewers. Great video btw, keep it up

[@zyxzevn]

A major source of electromagnetic chirps that ligo can also detect. It can affect the mirrors. :$

[@timothybackhus824]

When I was little little I would turn my radio on during a thunderstorm, and I thought it was so cool that I could hear a burst of static and see my window light up at the same time. Thought I was the world's greatest physicist for "discovering" it

[@JustMeUpNorth]

Lightning, the nemesis of every DX-er! 😂 Always knew when a storm was around as a kid with my radio.

[@danielpetka446]

Dude you shouldve been my science teacher

[@MadScientist512]

A lightning powered Tesla coil would be the ultimate Mad Science Project though too large-scale to be practical, but capturing lightning with a rocket and steel wire seems the sort of thing these guys'd be well capable of, with perhaps a coil gun or the like at the end, we can't all have a Flux Capacitor :) Great video as always of course.

[@zakolia]

Hello from Montréal! That makes me proud of my city. I can see my worksite from up there!! Very nice charnel .

[@cptpinecone]

Holy frick I forgot how much I like this channel.

[@AtlasReburdened]

So, back when I had to study all this we never actually covered atmospheric wave guide propagation and your explanation has me wondering if a soliton packet could be injected into it and whether data could be modulated into it. Have you seen any literature referencing such a feat?

[@johnpossum556]

This might be obvious but... if you're making it of course you can. If it's naturally made I wouldn't imagine there is an easy way to do so. The sub communication is fascinating and most of their communication is done on ELF. Extra Low Frequency. A lot of time and money was put into it back when we had the polaris missile (nuke capable) on the trident sub as a first launch capability near the end of the cold war. For its time it was very impressive. It also included a 11 mile long antenna array in colorado you might look up. You might enjoy it.

[@josephkanowitz6875]

@@johnpossum556 ב''ה, without enough tweakers stealing the copper DoD would lose some of their rape budget.

[@khashayarmodaberi4958]

Its so interesting! It sounds like raining and birds are singing in the rain! Such a beautiful theme!! The will of the lightening!!❤😊

[@cforn]

Excellent video!! Thanks!

[@TheRailroad99]

Very interesting, and a great idea to use them for tracking lightning bolts.

[@serjoprot]

Perfect! One of the available receivers on the website you gave is in a town 20km from my house

[@Wombattlr]

Just went to that live VLF website and within a few seconds of listening to a station, I heard a whistler

[@Swede_4_DJT]

Greetings from Sweden! You, Sir, just got yourself a new subscriber 🎉 Will digg though your channel in hope of more contents like this

[@astroguy8210]

Great video sir hope to see more of these videos

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

Fun fact: E layer of the atmosphere was the first one to be discovered and they decided to name it E just to have a bunch of letter both before and after it to have them reserved for later use. However, turned out that before it was only one distinct layer (D) and letters A-C ended up being forever reserved and unused. That sounds like some IT standard development doesnt it?

[@Rotem_S]

What do you mean by "living under a magnetic field line"? the lines are as far as I know just a visualisation tool and you're always "under" one

[@sonotthere]

he ment it more in teh sens that you have to be near the poles where they so to say enter the gound more since the signals follow the lines. the densety of the socal feild line is higer near the polses

[@kfftfuftur]

also if you followed the field line you are under you should be able to find lightning on the other side. Otherwise it wont work

[@Inexpressable]

bro why is your name in the middle of your comments age. teach me

[@IHateMadeUpNames]

If you’ve ever seen ferrofluid under influence of a magnet, you can see that there are regions the fluid congregates towards and forms pointy nodes which depend on the strength and location of the field. The regions and nodes can be remarkably consistent with respect to the location and strength of the magnet. You can almost always predict where the fluid will flow to if you’ve seen the same state (of the magnet wrt. the ferro fluid) before. Now, are those places/points of congregation where those pointy nodes show up actual, physical “field lines”? I’m not sure, but it is tempting to call them that. (edit: typo/parenthesis)

[@JxH]

@12m46s: Direction finding is actually by means of timing. The data is time-stamped using GPS derived precise time. The diagram shown mentions T1, T2, etc. i.e. time, not directly direction until the location is pinpointed via the timing.

[@JxH]

@12m59s: Note the green LED marked "GPS". The GPS data of course gives the location of the receiver, but also the precise time stamp of each noise burst. The antenna shown is clearly not directional.

[@jmannUSMC]

Sweet you live in my favorite city ever visited! Also, now I can't wait until lightning strikes again

[@mimoslavija]

I really like your device because it is very sensitive and can produce those sounds, unlike mine, which only rings when it detects a strong electromagnetic wave.

[@kylebowles9820]

Nice footage, crazy physics! You kinda forget that photonics really does scale with wavelength!

[@h0verman]

i recently got a device called an Ether that can listen to a very wide spectrum of electromagnetic frequencies and listening to a thunderstorm seems to get sounds that just miss the very low radio waves leading to just some dry crackling. still very cool

[@StatisticalError82]

Great video, have always been interested in learning more about the ionosphere, and this also serves as a great update to your previous video about VLF On the subject of radio, though, what's happened with your SDR stuff? I haven't heard a peep about it in months. You had ambitions plans about rebuilding Pipsqueak and mounting him in a radome when summer came around

[@thethoughtemporium]

Got busy with other things. This is why I stopped making update videos. Beyond no one really watching them, I'd get people excited for a project before getting distracted or busy with a different one. As with all of my projects, I will get to it eventually, but I pick the things that I find the most interesting at the time so I don't get bored and burnt out. That said I have actually been working on it in the background, just hasn't made it into media. Found a place to set it up permanently, but will need to wait for next summer as the season's already basically over.

[@proxy1035]

4:08 why does the graph say "Kelvin meter seconds" though. /s jokes aside i always had mad respect for lightnings, i mean isn't the cloud to earth thing just a giant capacitor? and a lightning is "just" the voltage building up so high that it breaks through the dielectric

[@jay-rad8303]

I went to the Australian Synchrotron monthly for a science club as a kid. I got to see it in action too which if you all know how rare that is; its pretty cool. I loved that science club. Too bad you can age out. I am now 17 and have followed a massive range of experiments with lack of proper paper work behind it but that will change very soon. Keep up the amazing work man! You are my inspiration!

[@EugenethePhilostopher]

Very informative and clean video. Thanks.

[@zachell1991]

That's pretty cool. I have never heard about this before.

[@essoxlucious5821]

Very informative, thank you 👍

[@stighenningjohansen]

To me listening to SW/AM/LW is like listening to the world, esp in summer. I can hear thunderstorms before they arrive, and many times I can see the light flicker at or from below the horizon, then, in an hour it takes off, right over my house

[@fortunateson6070]

I've often thought since I was a kid, that if we could capture lightning we'd have no need for any other energy source.

[@kovoc7135]

I love these radio videos

[@williambennett4360]

I'll now be listening to lightning to fall asleep..

[@invendelirium]

How can you possibly pick VLF under ocean, when the ocean's salty water is incredibly conductive (and you've mentioned in the beginning that it's a very good reflector)?

[@invendelirium]

A bit later, I thought that while electric field is screened very well by the conductive water, the magnetic field can potentially penetrate a lot deeper. How much deeper? Well, that is called "skin depth", and it can be easily calculated given the resistivity and the frequency. For ocean water resistivity, I found a value circa 0.2 ohm*m. For 1kHz, I calculated the skin depth to be 7 meters. So, a submarine whould be able to pick something up, but only if it is quite close to the surface. Below 20 meters it should fade to nothing.

[@thethoughtemporium]

The conductivity just tips the wave a bit so it can curve enough to not leave the atmosphere, doesn't really impede it, so it penetrates water just fine. Also, not much of the energy of a lightning bolt ends up as VLF. It's enough to pick up, but not a huge amount. Whereas for military stuff they blast copious amounts to get it where it needs to go. Also a lot of the reason radio has issues penetrating the ocean is because of the air water interface. Once it gets past that it can travel further. VLF mostly ignores this interface so it's already in a good position to keep traveling.

[@invendelirium]

@@thethoughtemporium And what's the deal with the interface? Is it too reflective? or too irregular? As for reflectivenes, VLF seems to be the point where it's the highest, as it is where dielectric permittivity of water is the highest (circa 100, so refractive index is 10). So it's worst for reflectivity. Then in the microwave it drops and gets a high imaginary component, meaning high absorption coefficient. then we are approaching the light territory...

[@kilovoltamp]

oh damn I saw these when I got a cheapo SDR a few years ago and I had no idea what they were and none of my friends could figure it out either, that's rad.

[@jaredloveless]

This reminds me of, when, As a kid I used to like listening to the strange sounds in abetween radio stations and particularly at the ends of my radio's dial.

[@Space-Audio]

Lightning, aka "whistlers' mother" . . . A nice summary focusing on ground-based VLF recordings. I host a historical archive of Steven McGreevy's material at www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/mcgreevy Two minor corrections to this video: The "dawn" in dawn chorus doesn't really have anything to do with local time; it's merely a reference to the morning song of jungle birds that the signals sound like. Also, it's my understanding that the VLF emissions don't push away the Van Allen belts, but drain it near the Earth. Also, if you want to hear similar space audio recorded by spacecraft . . . you know where to look.

[@thunderousavenger7437]

These sounds could create some amazing asmr

[@vega1287]

about your geko tape , i found a good sorce of a material suitable as a mold , it is the poralization filter from an lcd montor , i iven had one thst stuck to my closet althoagh i feel like it was more electrostatic related but still

[@aathish04]

Cool! Have you tried using the grooved underside of a CD or similar media? I hear they have very narrow grooves.

[@VinceTibo]

Great video as usual! Would love to chat with you when I come to montreal, just see what you're up to! Much love, keep up the good work!

[@among-us-99999]

is it possible to use the time difference of arrival to locate these lightning strikes?

[@vrenshrrg]

Yep, though with multiple direction sensing detectors you don't necessarily need to. It requires more precise timings, which are harder to do than simply orienting your detectors north.

[@brianjohn9144]

Blitzortung.org

[@charleslambert3368]

So hyped to get an rtlsdr and listen to all this stuff.

[@garbleduser]

Can you please cover ULF?

[@deanrobert8674]

In Australia when you scuba dive you will hear that very similar sounds which indicates a healthy reef with crayfish. The louder the clicking the more crayfish in the area.

[@Gleem]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@williamgoeres138]

This is awesome!

[@nerfatron]

Ive picked up whistlers on CB before when skip is rolling in strong, never knew what they were untill now

[@among-us-99999]

did you already try the shoot-laser-at-moon thing?

[@JxH]

@15m23s: As far as I know, the submarines are in Receive Only mode for VLF. Given how huge the transmitters are (Cutler ME is famous), it's a one-way system. As far as I know.

[@kellingc]

Really cool stuff. As ham radio operator, this facinates me.

[@satviksharma1146]

अरे गजब।

[@750kv8]

I listened to streams on that website, what a find! Literally what pop rocks sounds like. :D

[@ryanatkinson2978]

I've always wondered how lightning strikes are detected! Thank you

[@fordfalcon8940]

Im a guitarist and my amp makes a weird static noise when a lightning strikes. The weird part is that the sound of the lightning is heard first from the amp.

[@fordfalcon8940]

@James DeGray Digital. I guess its becaouse of some grounding issue.

[@TimothyWenger]

2:03 so I found this video while researching whistlers cuz I was watching security camera video from my house of a lightning strike that was close to my house, and I noticed right before the lightning/thunder, it almost sounded like a cartoon missile was incoming

[@JxH]

One last comment: Very nice video. Thank you.

[@denelson83]

You also get tweeks from these VLF signals travelling "the long path", all the way around the Earth and hitting your antenna from the other side.

[@gwgrivindar]

At the 3 minute mark just casually make the point that the wavelengths Tesla was working with a century ago do exactly what he said they did. A century ago.

[@johnpossum556]

Where was that exactly? I went back to 2:50 and listened for a minute and didn't hear it.

[@gwgrivindar]

@@johnpossum556 When he's describing the propagation of VLF waves at the 3 minute mark. In his time Tesla was saying he could use VLF to send messages across the Atlantic and because everyone was using hertzean wave mechanics that said EM waves travel in straight lines no one would believe him. Then Marconi used Tesla's equipment to send messages across the Atlantic and claimed he did it first. Despite a massive amount of evidence that Tesla had transmitted signals further over a decade previously.

[@johnpossum556]

@@gwgrivindar I heard no mention of Tesla in the video.