When you buy through links on our internet site , we may garner an affiliate committal . Here ’s how it sour .
Like a elephantine jellyfish float through the air , " red fay " hover above electric storm in two new photographs snapped from space .
astronaut aboard theInternational Space Station(ISS ) captured two rarified photograph ofred spritesfrom above on Aug. 10 . crimson sprites are strange luminous phenomena that occur aboard more familiar lightning strikes . They ’re seldom seen from the ground because they occur above storms ; they ’re also dim and surd to discover with the naked oculus .
A red sprite photographed by space station astronauts on Aug. 10, 2015, above Acapulco, Mexico.
" They ’re very exciting to look at , they create these fabulous visual image , but there is a pile that we still do n’t realise about them , " said Ryan Haaland , a professor of physical science at Fort Lewis College in Colorado who is involved in an ongoing project studying sprites . [ Images : Red Sprite Lightning Revealed in Stunning Photos ]
Spritely images
The first sprite picture evidence the phenomenon somewhere over Missouri or Illinois , agree toNASA ’s Earth Observatory , which published the imagesAug . 24 . The moonlight is visible as a bright spot in the nighttime sky , and the metropolis lights of Dallas light up the foreground of the photo . A thin green fog of airglow emanates from the atmosphere . The sprite appears above a blanched - blue electric storm .
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this rare of a red sprite above a thunderstorm (glowing white) on Aug. 10, 2015, somewhere over Missouri or Illinois.
A mere 2 second and 58 seconds later , the ISS whizzed over Acapulco , Mexico , and another red faerie seem . This sprite flashed above a electrical storm off the El Salvador coast . In both cases , the reddened faerie reach out at least 62 miles ( 100 klick ) above the Earth ’s surface , according to NASA ’s Earth Observatory . ( The ISS revolve between 205 and 270 miles above the satellite , or between 330 and 435 kilometre up . )
Likelightning , red sprites are induce by electrical discharges from storm , Haaland tell Live Science . Sprites are normally produced by enormous summertime thunderstorms known by meteorologists as mesoscale convective organisation . They play along traditional lightning , which primes the upper atmospheric state for these colourful flash lamp , Haaland say .
" Storms cause charges to get pushed around , and you get a charge imbalance , " Haaland said . " That imbalance causes lightning and it also do the fay inthe upper atmosphere . "
Sprites are n’t as hot as lightning , though , because the upper atm is less dense than the lower atmosphere where lightning strikes .
" The only way to get high forcible temperature is to havelots of particle , and we do n’t , " Haaland said .
atmospherical mystery
The blink - and - you’ll - miss - them faery persist largely mystical , however . scientist are n’t sure what causes their tendril - alike condition , which can depart . Nor are they certain why some storms raise ruddy fairy , while others produce dissimilar colourful upper - ambiance phenomenon , such as blue jet anddimly glowing ELVES(which stands , vaguely , for " Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources " ) .
Sprites last a mere 20 msec or so , Haaland said , and they ’re tough to measure . He and his colleagues at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the Air Force Academy take measurements from observatory in New Mexico and Wyoming that overlook the storm - prone Great Plains . But they ’ve also had to flee pleasure trip using research aircraft operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) so as to get closer . From afar , Haaland said , the ocular theme song of ruby sprites are confuse by ambient luminosity and atmospheric noise .
The goal , Haaland say , is to calculate out both what causes red sprites and their kin , and if these phenomenon disquiet the upper atmospheric state in any path .
" We really need to lie with what impact they have on the upper atmospheric electrodynamo and the upper atmospheric chemistry , " he said . " Do they influence different chemical substance process , or are they just something that go on ? "
