Smithsonian Air&Space on Kopp-Etchells Effect
by Michael YonNovember 04, 2009
Helo Halo
Luminous halos twirled above a Boeing CH-47 Chinook on a recent night around 11:30 p.m. local time at Forward Operating Base Jackson in Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as helicopters ferried casualties and supplies in and out of the base. The photographer was independent journalist Michael Yon, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who has covered Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines with a camera. Helicopter pilots don’t have a name for the effect, but one explained to Yon, “Basically it is a result of static electricity created by friction as…dissimilar material strike against each other. In this case, titanium/nickel blades moving through the air and dust.” Yon says, however, that a researcher studying helicopter brownout emailed him to say that scientists are not 100 percent sure what causes the effect. Depending on the viewing angle, it creates dazzling little galaxies. An even longer exposure reveals stars and another aircraft marked by a string of lights at upper left of center; Yon suspects this aircraft was a Predator or Reaper UAV, which, unlike manned military aircraft, fly with their lights on in the Afghan night to avoid collisions. Yon, who made these shots with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 50 mm lens at an ISO of 800, claims that the night was far darker than his sensitive camera conveys, as evidenced by the green chemlights on the ground to guide the pilots. He was moved to create a name, the Kopp-Etchells Effect, for the rotor phenomenon to honor a pair of fallen soldiers, U.S. Army Corporal Benjamin Kopp and British Army Corporal Joseph Etchells, who died one day apart in July after fierce fighting in Helmand (Kopp had been evacuated to the U.S. before he died). “The tent in the foreground is a medical tent,” says Yon, “so that casualties can be kept in a tent until the last minute. A substantial number of British casualties in Helmand have been lifted off of this exact spot…because this is probably either the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, or nearly the most dangerous.”
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10 Comments
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Fernando Colon, Michael Chavez. Michael Chavez said: Smithsonian Air&Space on Kopp-Etchells Effect http://bit.ly/3JC4kj [...]
[...] the original post: Smithsonian Air&Space on Kopp-Etchells Effect This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
If you read this line too fast, it's really very funny, "…Predator or Reaper UAV, which, unlike manned military aircraft, fly with their lights on in the Afghan night to avoid collisions…"
[...] Discussion and other cool photos of the “Kopp-Etchells Effect” here. [...]
Thank you, Mr. Yon, for another great photograph. My hat's off to you and those brave soldiers you photograph in all their splendor. Time to make another donation.
Just submitted a donation, keep the real news coming in Mr. Yon.
You are on the front lines of the new alternative media.
Titanium, when you sand blast i, gives off a shower of pink sparks. I discovered this when I worked for a Heat Treating Company and a lot of what we processed was for the aerospace industry.
[...] Read more… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)A Typical Day in American AirspaceSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum [...]
Well, to avoid collisions with manned craft or in case the remote pilots are relying on camera views…
Impacting some crystals like quartz creates luminosities, and there is a fine sand-dust stirred into the air.
It would be a larger source than friction static, I suspect.
You could easily test it with sand vs. non-crystal dusts over a tarmac, and with any small propeller.
(If I win, I'll abjure to the name : )
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