Thunderstorms can be the most amazing scenery, as long as you are far enough away from them to be safe. Then one can simply relax and observe the strange phenomena that nature gives us. Lightning has caused great astonishment on humanity since ancient times and that is that when they burst into the middle of the blackness of the night, they instantly rule everything because with their scintillating contrast they volatilely illuminate the darkness. But none is the same as the other, they are all unique in their shape and magnitude, although perhaps the most amazing are those red flashes that appear unexpectedly and vanish just as they arrived, those are sprite rays.
What are sprite rays?
Sprite lightning isn’t particularly rare, but it is the most fleeting of all. That is why they are not well known except by meteorologists and those photographers who hunt for celestial flashes. Are flashes of red and they spread like brushstrokes in the sky, there are even some that resemble giant jellyfish that navigate the celestial vault, although they are very difficult to see.
stephen hummel
The red spectra, as they are also known, are very different from the lightning that we are used to seeing in electrical discharges from storms. They do occur in conjunction with these, however, they are not born in the same region of the atmosphere, which is why they have a very different appearance.
All electrical storms brew within a layer of the atmosphere known as the troposphere, which rises from 6 to 19 kilometers above the earth’s surface. But sprite rays occur far beyond, in the level known as the mesosphere that extends up to 80 kilometers high. For this reason it is very difficult to measure their magnitudes, because if one is observed, it will seem that they are really very small. But do not let yourself be confused by the distance, the true size of these red giants comes close to the 50 kilometers in length. They are truly big and impressive.
atmospheric defense mechanism
The wild nature of the red wraiths is not yet fully understood. But atmospheric electrodynamicists consider that they are often triggered by a very strong lightning bolt and an ordinary positively charged one near the ground. It is believed that They are a mechanism that our atmosphere uses to neutralize charges vertically. Although it is an extremely fast process that takes less than a tenth of a second to detonate. So fast that if you’re hunting one, blink and you’ll miss them.
Fortunately, high-resolution cameras are capable of capturing them, of course, as long as it is closed at the right time. If you have never seen sprite lightning this is your chance to delight your senses with the electricity of our planet.
stephane vetter
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