Latest Upper-atmospheric lightning Stories
When talking about lightning, appearances of different lightning which occur along with thunderstorms will emerge in the minds of the people and these lightning occur in the troposphere. However, in addition to lightning in the troposphere, there are kinds of lightning discharges which occur above the thunderstorms. Up to now, lightning discharges above storms include sprite, elves (Emissions of Light and VLF perturbation due to EMP Sources, elves), Blue jet and Gigantic jet etc, and all of...
[ Watch the Video: Sprites on Film ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Fifty miles above the Earth, dancing high above the clouds during thunderstorms, a different kind of lightning flashes. Bursts of red and blue light, known as sprites, flash for one thousandth of a second. Unless you happen to be looking directly at the flash, flying high over the clouds during a thunderstorm, you probably won't even see the sprite. One of the best places to get a good view...
TAU researchers predict "sprites" in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by lightning storms, and a valuable window into the composition of our atmosphere. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University say that sprites are not a phenomenon specific to our planet. Jupiter and Saturn experience lightning storms with...
A team of Spanish researchers has made a high-speed recording of elves and sprites in storms, fleeting and luminous electric phenomena produced in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Their analysis of these observations has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research."This is the first time in Europe that we have been able to use high-speed video to detect transitory luminous phenomena taking place in the upper atmosphere "“ so-called sprites (in the form of a carrot or...
A lightning researcher at the University of Bath has discovered that during thunderstorms, giant natural particle accelerators can form 40 km above the surface of the Earth. On Wednesday April 14th Dr. Martin Fullekrug will present his new work at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2010) in Glasgow.When particularly intense lightning discharges in thunderstorms coincide with high-energy particles coming in from space (cosmic rays), nature provides the right conditions to form a giant...
High-energy bursts of gamma rays typically occur far out in space, perhaps near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena. So imagine scientists' surprise in the mid-1990s when they found these powerful gamma ray flashes happening right here on Earth, in the skies overhead.They're called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, or TGFs, and very little is known about them. They seem to have a connection with lightning, but TGFs themselves are something entirely different."In fact,"...
U.S. scientists say they've captured a one-second image and the electrical fingerprint of a gigantic lightning jet that flowed 40 miles upward from a storm. While not occurring every time a thunderstorm develops, the rarely seen, highly charged meteorological events can flash up to the lower levels of space, or the ionosphere, Duke University scientists said. They are substantially larger than their downward striking cousins. Despite poor viewing conditions as a result of a full moon and a...
Duke University researchers have captured images of lightning bolts shooting upwards.The rare phenomenon, known as "gigantic jets," was photographed during tropical storm Cristobal last year.The gigantic jets shot more than 40 miles high, Duke Professor Steven Cummer and colleagues wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Despite poor viewing conditions as a result of a full moon and a hazy atmosphere, we were able to clearly capture the gigantic jet," said Cummer."What we were able to...
In legend, sprites are trolls, elves and other spirits that dance high above our ozone layer. But scientists at Tel Aviv University have discovered that some very real "sprites" are zipping across the atmosphere as well, providing a possible explanation for those other legendary denizens of the skies, UFOs.Thunderstorms, says Prof. Colin Price, head of the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences Department at Tel Aviv University, are the catalyst for a newly discovered natural phenomenon...
University Park, Pa. "“ The mechanism behind different types of lightning may now be understood, thanks to a combination of direct observation and computer modeling reported by a team of researchers from New Mexico Tech and Penn State."Our explanation provides a unifying view of how lightning escapes from a thundercloud," the researchers report in the April edition of Nature Geoscience.Most people see lightning strikes that go from clouds to the ground, but some lightning goes...
