{"id":58381,"date":"2025-01-14T21:51:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=58381"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:02:39","slug":"the-us-air-force-records-clear-st-elmos-fires-during-in-flight-refueling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/01\/14\/the-us-air-force-records-clear-st-elmos-fires-during-in-flight-refueling\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Air Force records clear St. Elmo's fires during in-flight refueling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>St. Elmo's fires are a curious meteorological phenomenon that usually occurs during an electrical storm.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/11\/18\/st-elmos-fires-the-spanish-air-force-shows-a-phenomenon-that-columbus-already-saw\/\">St. Elmo's Fires: the Spanish Air Force shows a phenomenon that Columbus already saw<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/09\/29\/usaf-kc-10-extender-tanker-aircraft-farewell-repeats-b-52-stratofortress-bomber-paradox\/\">USAF KC-10 Extender tanker aircraft farewell repeats B-52 Stratofortress bomber paradox<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Due to the ionization of the air, <strong>bluish electrical discharges can be captured on both ships and airplanes<\/strong>. As I already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/11\/18\/st-elmos-fires-the-spanish-air-force-shows-a-phenomenon-that-columbus-already-saw\/\">commented here<\/a> in 2020, Christopher Columbus captured this phenomenon during one of his voyages on October 26, 1493, and it was also recorded on the Magellan-Elcano expedition. This phenomenon has been known since ancient Greece and <strong>among sailors it has always been a sign of good omen<\/strong>, which explains why it was named after Saint Elmo, the patron saint of sailors.<\/p>\n<p>Airmen have been watching this phenomenon for years. Yesterday, the <strong>US Air Force (USAF) released<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/video\/949420\/f-15s-refuel-with-kc-135-stratotanker-stormy-skies-over-uscentcom-aor-stringer\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a video showing very clear St. Elmo\u2019s fires<\/a> during a nighttime refueling between a <strong>KC-135 Stratotanker<\/strong> and an <strong>F-15E Strike Eagle<\/strong> fighter-bomber at an undisclosed location within the US Central Command (CENTCOM) area of \u200b\u200bresponsibility:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"La USAF capta fuegos de San Telmo en un reabastecimiento en vuelo\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hHz4p3RXMAI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can see some screenshots from this video here. The images show <strong>a very clear electrical discharge on the windows of the KC-135 cockpit<\/strong> (this St. Elmo's fire appears cropped due to how it was captured by the digital recording system used on the plane). <strong>Click on the images to see them enlarged.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266779554_a85c359d96_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266779554_2afb06a87e_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>A persistent St. Elmo's fire is also observed on the nose of the F-15E<\/strong>, specifically on the starboard side. The digital recording captured it as a blue line headed by a less clear part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266770983_0161d5d207_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266770983_f3877b7a1f_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here we can see another image of the same St. Elmo's fire on the nose of the F-15E.<\/strong> The image shows that this fighter aircraft was armed with three short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and one medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile, on the side supports of the external fuel tank pylons.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266771008_f62ec1b4fd_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266771008_b559b28f40_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>St. Elmo's fire on the nose of the F-15E,<\/strong> recorded from the KC-135 refueling boom operator's position.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266954615_8991b8117f_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266954615_687aa77bfc_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Another St. Elmo's fire, this time the starboard external fuel tank of the F-15E.<\/strong> It should be noted that these discharges are not dangerous for the crew of the planes, since the metal fuselage of both works as a Faraday cage. Another thing is that it may imply some risk for refueling. It should be noted that <strong>a St. Elmo's fire can be the precursor to a lightning bolt.<\/strong> In fact, sailors knew that they had to take cover if they saw one when they were up on a mast.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266770973_178ad5530e_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266770973_df7ecb84ca_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Another image of a small St. Elmo's fire<\/strong> in the starboard outboard tank.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266771013_14d9c3679f_3k.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54266771013_70920d9a66_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Elmo&#8217;s fires are a curious meteorological phenomenon that usually occurs during an electrical storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11546],"tags":[23551],"class_list":["post-58381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-aviation","tag-st-elmos-fire"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-11 23:45:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}