Note: begins the season of sprites

High above the Earth, in the realm of meteors and noctilucent clouds, a strange lightning dances at the edge of outer space. Scientists call them "sprites". They are red, fleeting, and usually gathered into a group.

If you have never seen such lightning, now is the time to look at the sky. Last Friday, may 19, Laura Cranitch has captured sprites over the city Titanum (Brandenburg, Germany).

"The flash appeared above the mesoscale convective system that moved through Northern Germany, says Cranitch. — I went to East Germany to find a clear sky and get a more distant view of the storm."

Because the sprites associated with thunderstorms, they usually appear in late spring and summer. Season of storms — season of the sprites.

"This is a real phenomenon of space weather — explains the researcher zips Oscar van der Velde from the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain). — They develop at an altitude of about 80 km, grow in both directions, first down and then up. That's what happens when powerful lightning attracts a charge cloud near the earth's surface. Electric field "shoot" at the top of the atmosphere, and the result is sprites. The whole process takes about 20 milliseconds".

Although the sprites are observed in the course of that century, most scientists did not believe in their existence until 1989, when they were recorded by cameras on Board the spacecraft. Now "hunters sprites" regularly photograph high-altitude lightning even while at home.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»