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Credit & Copyright: Ben Broady
Explanation:
What are those red filaments in the sky?
It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 30 years ago:
red sprites.
Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive
cloud-to-ground lightning strike,
red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of
ionized
air that shoot down from about
80-km high at 10 percent the
speed of light and are
quickly followed
by a group of upward streaking ionized balls.
The
featured image, taken just over a week ago in
Kununurra,
Western Australia,
captured some red sprites while shooting
a time-lapse sequence of a distant lightning storm.
Pictured, green trees cover the foreground, dark mountains are seen on the horizon,
ominous storm clouds hover over the distant land,
while
red
sprites appear in front of stars far in the distance.
Red sprites take only a
fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when
powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: lightning
Publications with words: lightning
See also:
- APOD: 2024 August 13 Á Giant Jet from the International Space Station
- APOD: 2024 June 18 Á Gigantic Jets over Himalayan Mountains
- APOD: 2023 October 2 Á Sprite Lightning in High Definition
- APOD: 2023 September 18 Á The Red Sprite and the Tree
- APOD: 2023 June 25 Á Lightning on Jupiter
- APOD: 2023 April 17 Á ELVES Lightning over Italy
- Star Trails and Lightning over the Pyrenees