The "green ghost" is first seen over the disappeared giant jet

In September 2021, photographer Frankie Lucena from Puerto Rico captured one of the varieties of high-altitude lightning called a giant jet. Frankie recently reviewed the recordings with his colleague Paul Smith, who noticed a pale green spot in the frame after the lightning disappeared, known as the "green ghost".

This phenomenon was detected in the upper atmosphere in 2019. Hank Shima, who is fond of shooting thunderstorms, saw a green glow after the sprites and called it a "ghost". As it turned out, not only sprites, but also giant jets can leave the same trace.

Scientists did not immediately understand what the green ghosts were. But experts from the University of Alaska eventually found an explanation. They are formed when lightning electric fields excite oxygen atoms at an altitude of 90-95 kilometers, causing them to glow green. This radiation is similar in wavelength to green auroras, in which the same atoms are excited by solar particles.