The optical phenomenon of St. Elmo's lights photography. What is Saint Elmo's Fire? Explanation of the phenomenon from the point of view of science

The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, dividing fire into two types - earthly and heavenly, argued that during a thunderstorm "the stars seem to descend from the sky and sit on the masts of ships." But the main difference between heavenly fire and earthly fire is that it does not burn, does not ignite objects and cannot be extinguished with water.

Cohorts of Roman legionnaires, arranging a night bivouac, stuck their spears into the ground, surrounding the camp with a kind of fence. When the weather foreshadowed a night thunderstorm, blue tassels of "heavenly fire" were often lit on the tips of the spears. It was a good sign from heaven: since ancient times, such a glow was called the fires of the Dioscuri, who were considered the heavenly patrons of warriors and sailors.

After 2000 years, in the more enlightened XVII-XVIII centuries, this phenomenon was adapted to warn of a thunderstorm. In many European castles, a spear was installed on a hill. Since the fire of the Dioscuri is not visible during the day, the guard regularly brought a halberd to the tip of the spear: if sparks jumped between them, one should immediately ring the bell, warning of an imminent thunderstorm. Naturally, at that time the phenomenon was no longer called by a pagan name, and since such a glow most often arose on the spiers and crosses of churches, many local names appeared: the fires of St. Nicholas, Claudius, Helena and, finally, St. Elmo.

Depending on what the “heavenly fire” appears on, it can take on different forms: a uniform glow, separate flickering lights, brushes or torches. Sometimes it is so reminiscent of an earthly flame that they tried to extinguish it. There were also other curiosities.

In 1695, a sailing ship was caught in a thunderstorm in the Mediterranean. Fearing a storm, the captain ordered the sails to be lowered. And then, on different parts of the spars of the ship, more than 30 fires of St. Elmo appeared. On the weather vane of the main mast, the fire reached half a meter in height. The captain, apparently having taken a pint of rum before, sent a sailor to the mast to take out the fire. Rising upstairs, he shouted that the fire hissed like an angry cat, and did not want to be filmed. Then the captain ordered to remove it along with the weather vane. But as soon as the sailor touched the weather vane, the fire jumped to the end of the mast, from where it was impossible to remove it.

A little earlier, on June 11, 1686, "Saint Elmo" descended on a French warship. Abbé Chausi, who was on board, left to posterity personal impressions of meeting him. “A terrible wind was blowing,” wrote the abbot, “it was raining, lightning flashed, the whole sea was on fire. Suddenly I saw on all our masts the fires of St. Elmo, which descended to the deck. They were the size of a fist, glowed brightly, jumped and did not burn at all. Everyone smelled sulfur. The wandering lights felt at home on the ship. This went on until dawn."

On December 30, 1902, the Moravia steamer was near the Cape Verde Islands. Captain Simpson, taking over the watch, made an entry in the ship's log with his own hand: “For a whole hour, lightning flashed in the sky. The steel ropes, the tops of the masts, the butts of the yardarms and cargo booms, all shone. There seemed to be lighted lanterns every four feet on every stay. The glow was accompanied by a strange noise: as if myriads of cicadas settled in a rig, or deadwood and dry grass burned with a crackle.

There are fires of St. Elmo and on aircraft. Navigator A. G. Zaitsev left the following entry about his observation: “It was in the summer of 1952 over Ukraine. We were descending through thunderous clouds. It grew dark outside, as if dusk had fallen. Suddenly we saw how light blue flames twenty centimeters high danced along the leading edge of the wing. There were so many of them that the wing seemed to be burning along the entire edge. Three minutes later, the lights disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.

The “heavenly fire” is also observed by specialists who are supposed to do this by the nature of their work. In June 1975, employees of the Astrakhan Hydrometeorological Observatory were returning from work in the north of the Caspian Sea. “In complete darkness, we got out of the reed beds and went through shallow water to a motor boat left two kilometers from the shore,” N. D. Gershtansky, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, wrote later. “Somewhere in the north lightning flashed. All of a sudden, our hair lit up with a phosphorescent light. Tongues of cold flame appeared near the fingers of raised hands. When we raised the measuring stick, its top lit up so brightly that you could read the manufacturer's tag. All this went on for ten minutes. Interestingly, below a meter above the surface of the water, the glow did not occur.

But the fires of St. Elmo appear not only before a thunderstorm. In the summer of 1958, employees of the Institute of Geography carried out meteorological measurements under the program of the International Geophysical Year on the glacier in the Zailiysky Alatau at an altitude of 4000 meters. On June 23, a snowstorm began, it got colder. On the night of June 26, meteorologists, leaving the house, saw an amazing picture: blue tongues of cold flame appeared on the weather instruments, antennas, icicles on the roof of the house. It also appeared on the fingers of raised hands. On the rain gauge, the height of the flame reached 10 centimeters. One of the employees decided to touch the flame on the hook of the gradient rod with a pencil. At the same moment, lightning struck the bar. People were blinded and knocked down. When they got up, the fire disappeared, but after a quarter of an hour it reappeared in its original places.

Rodnya mound is located in the south of the Tver region. Its top is overgrown with coniferous forest, and local residents try not to go there, because the mound is notorious. In the summer of 1991, a group of tourists camped nearby for the night and observed a strange phenomenon: in pre-stormy weather, blue lights began to light up one after another over the trees at the top of the mound. When the tourists climbed the hill the next day, they accidentally discovered that some trees were equipped with "lightning rods" in the form of copper wire wrapped around the trunks. Apparently, there were pranksters who wished to somehow use the notoriety of the hill.

The nature of the fires of St. Elmo is undoubtedly connected with electrical processes in the atmosphere. In good weather, the electric field strength near the ground is 100-120 V / m, that is, between the fingers of a raised hand and the ground, it will reach approximately 220 volts. Unfortunately, at a very meager current. Before a thunderstorm, this field strength increases to several thousand V/m, and this is already enough for a corona discharge to occur. The same effect can be observed in snow and sandstorms and volcanic clouds.

Sometimes in thundery weather one can observe an interesting natural phenomenon: a bright glow appears on the tops of spiers, towers and even trunks of individual trees. This interesting phenomenon has long been known to sailors. The ancient Romans called it the fires of Pollux and Castor (mythological twins). When there is a thunderstorm on the sea, such lights usually appear not at the top of the masts. The historian of Ancient Rome, Lucius Seneca, wrote on this occasion: "It seems that the stars descend from the sky and sit on the masts of ships."

In medieval Europe, the lights on the masts began to be associated with the name of St. Elmo. In Christian tradition, he was considered the patron saint of sailors. Here is what sailors wrote about mysterious fires in the 17th century: “A thunderstorm began and a fire appeared on the weather vane of a large mast, reaching a height of 1.5 meters. The captain ordered the sailor to put it out. He climbed up and shouted that the fire was hissing like raw gunpowder. They shouted to the sailor to take it off with the weather vane and bring it down, but the fire jumped to the end of the mast, and it became impossible to get to it.

The fires of St. Elmo can be seen not only in the sea. American farmers have repeatedly told how, during a thunderstorm, the horns of cows on the ranch glowed. An unprepared person may associate such a phenomenon with something supernatural.

How are the fires of St. Elmo created?

Modern physics knows almost everything about the fires of St. Elmo. These are electric corona discharges, and the essence of this phenomenon is explained quite simply: any gas has a certain amount of charged particles or ions. They arise due to the detachment of electrons from atoms. The number of such ions under normal conditions is negligible, so the gas does not conduct electricity. But during a thunderstorm, the intensity of the electromagnetic field increases dramatically.

As a result, gas ions begin to move more intensively, as they receive additional energy. They begin to bombard neutral gas molecules, and they break up into positively and negatively charged particles. This process is called impact ionization. It goes like an avalanche, and as a result of this, the gas has the ability to conduct electricity.

This phenomenon was first studied by the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. He proved that in an alternating electromagnetic field, the intensity is more intense around sharp protrusions of buildings and objects. It is in such places that regions of ionized gas arise. Outwardly, they look like crowns. Hence the name - corona discharge.

The effect of impact ionization is used in Geiger counters, that is, it measures the level of radiation with its help. And corona discharges obediently serve people in laser printers and copiers.

The fires of St. Elmo are directly related to the attempt to photograph the human aura. What is an aura? These are the seven energy layers surrounding the human body. The first is associated with pleasure and pain, the second with emotions, the third with thinking. The fourth is associated with the energy of love, the fifth with the human will, the sixth with the manifestation of divine love, and the seventh with the higher mind.

Official science denies the aura. However, there are people who offer to photograph the aura and determine possible health problems from the picture. The possibility of photographing the aura was discussed as a result of the research of the Kirlian spouses. They created a kind of laboratory at home, where they used a resonant transformer as a source of high-voltage voltage.

Initially, it was only about the photographic fixation of corona discharges. However, soon everyone was talking about Kirlian effect. It was said that the luminosity of the tips of human fingers noticeably increases after reading the prayer. They also wrote that if the tip is cut off from a sheet of paper and the cut sheet is photographed using the Kirlian method, then a luminous intact sheet will be reflected in the photograph.

As for science, it was indifferent to this effect. Physicists have stated that such an effect does not exist in nature. They motivated this by the fact that when a high-frequency field is repeatedly exposed to, say, human skin, its electrical conductivity increases. This happens due to the release of sweat, which contains the ions necessary for electrical conductivity. That's the whole effect.

Kirlian effect, photo #1 (left) and photo #2

From this it is clear why the second shot of the glow is brighter. After the first photographing, we tried not to read prayers, but to utter abusive expressions. The second photo still turned out brighter, as if good words were spoken.

If we talk about the glow of the entire sheet after cutting off part of it, then the experts figured it out very quickly. It turned out that the sheet was placed on the same substrate that was before. And it contained those substances that the leaf managed to isolate during the first study. It was enough to wipe the substrate with alcohol or put a clean sheet of paper on it, as the effect disappeared.

But what about the human aura? Does she exist or not? It depends on what is meant by this term. Human skin releases a wide variety of substances. The electrical conductivity of the skin of a healthy and sick person differs markedly. Almost every protein molecule that is part of the cells of living organisms carries positive and negative charges on its surface. Therefore, any organism creates a weak electric field. This aura is very real.

Ancient artists decorated the heads of saints on icons with halos. They were considered a symbolic image of holiness. It is difficult to argue anything here, since a person who has devoted himself to charitable deeds really, as it were, glows from within.

On the other hand, everyone can see a halo around their head. To do this, you need to stand early in the morning on the dewy grass with your back to the sun and look at the shadow from your head. There will be a slight glow around it. This is not a sign of holiness at all, but only the optical effect of the reflection of sunlight from dew drops..

Saint Elmo's fire - This is a beautiful glow caused by the accumulation of a large electrical discharge during thunderstorms. This phenomenon is mainly observed on ship masts, near aircraft flying through thunderclouds, and sometimes on mountain peaks.

According to the legends of those times, the fires of St. Elmo began to appear after the death of St. Elmo at a time when there was a very strong storm on the sea. Saint Elmo was the patron saint of sailors in the Mediterranean. Shortly before Elm lay down on his deathbed, he promised that he would notify all sailors, giving them signs about whether they would be saved or not. And soon the sailors, who were on the mast of the ship, saw a certain glow, which no one had ever seen, and which was taken as the promised sign.

Seneca said that during a thunderstorm, the stars begin to descend, as it were, from the sky and sit on the ship's masts. In ancient times, Greece and Rome associated this phenomenon with the condescension from heaven of two twins who bore the names Pollux and Castor. Since then, such bright mystical lights have been by no means evil, but a good sign for every sailor, since it was interpreted that the patron Saint Elmo was nearby, which means that he would not allow trouble to appear. Otherwise, the appearance of a single fire was a bad omen, as strong and shipwreck followed.

It was a happy omen that the fires of St. Elmo could only be seen towards the end of the stormy weather. The lights, unfortunately, sometimes appeared and not with very good intentions. If they descended to the deck part of the ship, then it was believed that the spirit of the deceased was wandering around the ship and returned in order to warn the ship's staff of an imminent misfortune. It happened that such a glow turned out to be over a person, then this “luminous” one should die as soon as possible.

Saint Elmo's fires appear in different forms. They can be seen both as a uniform glow, and as separate flickering lights, and as torches. It happens that such lights can appear to people in the form of flames, so sometimes people run to put them out.

The phenomenon is quite beautiful, so it can fascinate every eyewitness. Some may be afraid of him. But there is nothing wrong with that. For the first time, such lights can really scare away. But if you see them often, you can get used to it. And to associate it with a bad omen is unlikely to succeed.

Such a phenomenon in 1957 was noticed by fishermen on Lake Pleshcheevsky near Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Explanation of the phenomenon from the point of view of science

There are a huge number of mythological interpretations of this phenomenon. But it can also be explained in terms of scientific research. In 1749, Ben Franklin equated fire with electricity generated in the atmosphere.

According to scientific research, the fires of St. Elmo are a common point discharge, which occurs mainly on single objects. And it appears only when the value of the electric field becomes more than 1000 volts per 1 cm. That is why the lights of St. Elmo appear only in a thunderstorm. During strong thunderstorms, you can see how leaves, grass and animal horns glow. Very often, such a glow is observed near a tornado, during snow storms and squalls. It is at this time that a large amount of electrical discharge accumulates in the clouds and on the earth's surface.

The planet Earth is surrounded by an electric field. Most often, the air has a positive charge, and the earth is negative, which leads to ionization of the air. This creates an electric field. When a "quiet" discharge occurs from any sharp protrusions (for example, spiers, towers, masts, trees, poles), from which small electrical sparks jump out, then it is called "corona". If there are a lot of sparks, and the process itself takes place over a longer time, then you can see a radiance of a pale bluish color, which looks like flames.

Traditionally, on Saturdays, we publish answers to the quiz for you in the Q&A format. Our questions range from simple to complex. The quiz is very interesting and quite popular, but we just help you test your knowledge and make sure that you have chosen the correct answer out of the four proposed. And we have another question in the quiz - Where do St. Elmo's fires often appear?

• A. on cave stalactites
• B. on ship masts
• C. at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
• D. on the surface of the moon

The correct answer is B. On the masts of ships

The fires of St. Elmo are a natural phenomenon that can be observed during a thunderstorm. When negatively or positively charged particles accumulate at the base of the cloud, they contribute to the creation of an opposite charge on the surface of the earth. Streams of charged particles form between the earth and clouds, and when they begin to move at high speed, bright flashes of lightning appear in the sky.

The object of worship for all sailors was the lights, named after the Catholic Saint Elmo, the patron saint of sailors. The thing is that it was the sailors who first drew attention to the special glow of the sharp masts and other parts of their ship, which occurred before or during a thunderstorm. In this case, it was believed that Saint Elmo descended to protect the ship from adversity and trouble at sea.

Legend connects the apparition with Saint Elmo (or Erasmus), the patron saint of sailors in the Mediterranean, who is said to have died at sea during a violent storm. Before his death, he promised the sailors that he would certainly appear to them in one form or another to tell them whether they were destined to be saved. Soon after this, a strange glow appeared on the mast, which they perceived as the appearance of either the saint himself or a sign sent by him in fulfillment of his promise.

The ancient pagans - Greeks and Romans - believed that these were the appearances of the divine twins Castor and Pollux and called them Helen in honor of their sister.

One of the most beautiful and amazing natural phenomena is the so-called St. Elmo's fires, which can sometimes be observed on the tops of pointed objects.


The top branches of trees, the spiers of towers, the tops of masts on the sea, and other similar places are sometimes illuminated with a shimmering bluish glow. It can look different: like a smooth flickering glow in the form of a crown or a halo, like dancing flames, like fireworks scattering sparks.

Why are St. Elmo's fires so called?

In medieval Europe, dancing lights were associated with the image of the Catholic Saint Elmo (Erasmus), who patronized sailors. Legend has it that the saint died during a storm on the deck of a ship. Before his death, he promised that from the next world he would pray for the sailors and give signs about their future fate, and these signs would be dancing magic lights.

The saint kept his word: since then, the lights that arose on the masts of the ship during a storm predicted the imminent end of bad weather and served as a good sign for sailors. But if the fire descended from the mast to the deck or shone over a person, this was considered a warning of impending misfortune or even death.

Most often, the fires of St. Elmo can be seen in mountainous areas, sometimes it is found in the steppe zone or at sea. In our latitudes, wandering lights appear extremely rarely - this is due to the physical nature of the phenomenon, the appearance of which requires special circumstances.

How are Saint Elmo's fires formed?

The hypothesis that the fires of St. Elmo are associated with appeared in the eighteenth century: it was expressed by the famous researcher Benjamin Franklin, who was one of the first to set up experiments to study electrical discharges. However, scientists were able to fully describe the physical nature of the phenomenon only in the twentieth century.

The appearance of the glow is associated with the presence of a large number of ionized particles in the air. Usually their presence in the air mass is extremely small, but during a thunderstorm their number increases dramatically - to such an extent that they can generate a fairly strong electromagnetic field.


The collision of an ion with an ordinary gas molecule leads to the appearance of a charge in the particle that was previously neutral. The field strength grows rapidly, and the ionization process in this case resembles an avalanche. This phenomenon is called impact ionization and is described in detail by N. Tesla.

At a certain stage, collisions of particles lead to the formation of a glow in places where the field has a particularly high intensity.

Typically, this occurs around sharp protruding objects, which are most often ship masts, tower spiers, or tall tree tops. These places serve as a kind of lightning rods, through which atmospheric electricity "flows" into the ground, accompanying the process with a characteristic crackle and the smell of ozone.

Pilots see St. Elmo's fire most often: they form at the ends of the wings or propeller blades if the aircraft has to cross the front of thunderclouds. Electric discharges often reach such strength that they interfere with radio communications.

Until now, cases of aircraft death due to loss of controllability are possible, although today every aircraft is necessarily equipped with devices for neutralizing atmospheric discharges.

Why can't you see the fires of St. Elmo here?

In our country, the fires of St. Elmo are an extremely rare occurrence, they don’t even have their own name, so we use the European one.

The fact is that for the formation of a glow, the ionized air mass must descend low enough, and in our country the minimum height of a thundercloud is at least half a kilometer.

In the highlands of the Alps or the Pyrenees, this height is significantly reduced. The hurricane-force winds raging over the surface of the sea can also push the ionized air low enough to cause the ship's masts to glow.


The appearance of discharges of atmospheric electricity can disable electronics: mobile phones, computers and other equipment. Therefore, one should not regret the absence of the fires of St. Elmo - although they are very beautiful, contemplation of this beauty can be quite expensive for ordinary people.