Unsettling, very realistic image of a lightning "sprite" reveals one of
nature's least known occurrences
During a thunderstorm over central Europe, a rare form of red lightning
known as a sprite—which shoots upward—was momentarily visible in the sky,
resembling a massive jellyfish. An astronomer just managed to get one of the
most precise images of this unusual phenomenon ever.
Astronomer
Stanislav Kaniansky
of Slovakia's Banská Bystrica Observatory captured the sprite on August 14
close to his residence in Látky, according to
Spaceweather.com. It was a bright,
zigzagging object that spanned over 31 miles (50 kilometers) in diameter and
vanished in a matter of nanoseconds.
Sprites are caused by electrical discharges from lightning that shoot
upward in addition to their usual downward trajectory. Sprites are
stratospheric disturbances arising from strong thunderstorm electrification.
According to
NASA, these discharges produce lengthy strands of plasma, or ionized gas, in
the ionosphere, which is the ionized region of Earth's atmosphere that
begins about 50 miles (80 km) above the planet's surface.
Because sprites are ephemeral and sometimes hidden by heavy clouds, they
are extremely difficult to shoot. However, Kaniansky's attitude allowed him
to observe the event up close. He told Spaceweather.com, "I had a good view
of the atmosphere just above the cloud tops because the thunderstorm was
about 320 km [200 miles] away."
"One of the most detailed pictures ever of a sprite," said Spaceweather.com
about the image.
The first unclouded photographs of sprites were taken by NASA's space
shuttles
in the early 1990s, marking the formal discovery of the phenomena. However, because red
lightning is so fleeting, research on it has been challenging.
Although the precise mechanism underlying the phenomena is still unknown,
scientists currently think that disruptions in atmospheric plasma created by
small particles like meteors may be partially responsible for sprites.
On August 20, while Hurricane Franklin moved through Puerto Rico, spirits
were also captured on camera above lightning strikes.
Sprites belong to a class of phenomena that are associated with lightning,
called transient luminous events (TLE). Other TLEs include light emission
and very low-frequency perturbations caused by electromagnetic pulse
sources, which are transient red light rings produced when lightning strikes
the ionosphere. Blue jets are more potent and energetic versions of sprites
and elves.
Though still extremely uncommon, some TLEs are becoming simpler to capture
on camera as a result of technological developments. 2019 saw the
International Space Station's equipment take pictures of a massive blue jet
in space. Alongside the occurrence, in Oklahoma in 2018, there was what is
thought to be the strongest lightning bolt ever recorded. And in April of
this year, an Italian photographer took a spooky picture of an elve that
resembled a UFO and seemed to dangle over a town.
