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Credit & Copyright: Frankie Lucena
Explanation:
Have you ever seen a gigantic jet?
They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful.
Gigantic jets
are a type of lightning discharge documented only this century
that occur between some
thunderstorms and the Earth's
ionosphere
high above them.
Pictured above is the middle and top of one such jet caught last week
by a lightning and meteor camera from
Puerto
Rico,
USA.
The jet traversed perhaps 70 kilometers in just under one second.
Gigantic jets
are much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and
cloud-to-ground lightning.
The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar in appearance to another type
cloud-to-above strike called
blue jets, while the tops appear similar to
upper-atmosphere
red sprites.
Although the mechanism and
trigger that causes gigantic jets is a
topic of research,
it is clear that the jets reduce
charge imbalance between different parts of
Earth's atmosphere.
A good way to look for
gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but
distant thunderstorm from a clear location.
Almost Hyperspace:
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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