The Kopp-Etchells Effect, Part II
by Michael Yon27 August 2009
My embed with British forces has ended. Will be out with U.S. forces for the foreseeable future. After that, will strike out alone into the wilds of Afghanistan. There are two more stories in the pipeline about the British soldiers I was with, who were in a couple of firefights. The bullets got pretty close. The events are worth recounting. Unsure if I will be able to complete those dispatches due to the time wasted with the sudden ending of my embed. Am attempting to publish at least one. The soldiers deserve both, but time is cruel when its wasted.
A researcher who studies helicopter “brown outs” contacted me regarding the Kopp-Etchells Effect. Apparently the effect is unrelated to St. Elmo’s Fire. In fact, it sounds as though scientists remain unsure of exactly what causes the Kopp-Etchells Effect. The phenomenon remains a mystery.
Please Click Here to Read Part I of The Kopp-Etchells Effect.
I cannot operate in the war without your support. If support does not substantially increase, I will be forced to abandon war reporting in September. There has seldom been much interest in the Afghanistan war. True interest has been starkly reflected in the support for this mission. Each journey into Afghanistan, since 2006, has bled out resources from my operations. Reporting from Afghanistan is not sustainable at this rate.
Nevertheless, I continue to crack on: Please consider signing up for free Twitter updates at Michael_Yon (not Michael Yon without the underscore), for the most timely snippets possible.
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9 Comments
[...] the original post here: The Kopp-Etchells Effect, Part II This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
What happened? This sounds unexpected!
Please, please give my thanks to your friends, the British troops. They are on the front lines in defending freedom!
That effect, if I were to guess looks very much like an angle grinder cutting a kitchen sink in granite. I carve rock, mostly marble, but granite is composed of silica and sand is basically broken down granite. It wouldn't surprise me a bit that rotors with that kind of torque aren't simply grinding the dust and sand down even further creating the sparks and effect.
The fact that the Kopp-Etchells effect stops when the helicopter ramp goes down — thus grounding the chopper — suggests to this former electrical engineer that what we see is some kind of electromagnetic or ionizing energy, not sand being ground down even further. Most likely just static electricity buildup and discharge.
Nice work Michael. Please stay safe. I can't imagine "strik[ing] out alone into the wilds of Afghanistan."
Some guy is selling a painting on eBay of Patti Ann Browne and what remains of the Red Eye guys. Half of the sale he's going to give to Mr. Michael Yon. It'd be cool if you let us know if he actually did it. 4 days left and it's up to $230. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&...
British MoD (Military of Defense) did not like his last Bad Medicine article even though it passed the OPSEC (Operational Security) from the British Command in Afghanistan. This happens, he will just move on and do some more fantastic reporting, won't stop him! US forces next stop!
Yeah, it's a plasma phenomena of ionized particles like static electricity. You get an electric effect with dust devils, too, also tornadoes. Surrounding a thunderhead cell is an invisible halo of ionized charge.
That makes sense, a static charge, but there has to be some kind of friction and the rotor tips have to be colliding at high speed with the dust/sand particles when this crops up. Anyway, it looks just like carving a granite coutertop, same thing..
Thanks you, Sanmon.
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