Red glow in the sky over the mountains in Slovakia

A dark and windy night on August 18, photographer Ondrej Kralik was in the Low Tatras mountains and noticed in the sky an unusual red glow. "I thought the storm is coming", — said the author of the photos, which capture the phenomenon of sprites.

"However, I quickly realized that the storm is coming, and is far away, and I see a distant storm front. The sprites seemed to dance over the tops of the clouds. Given the brightness, I think the storm was to the South-East of Germany".

Sometimes called "cosmic lightning" sprites are a phenomenon of space weather. They occur in the upper atmosphere. Some researchers link them with cosmic rays: subatomic particles from deep space, according to scientists, penetrate the atmosphere and produce electrons that create sprites in a highly charged environment over the storm clouds.

It should be noted that in the last couple of years balloons, watching the weather, note the increase in the number of cosmic rays entering the atmosphere. This may be due to changes in the solar cycle — falling activity. The weakening of the solar wind and sunspots "releases" more rays in the outer solar system, and this trend will continue for the next few years, reports Spaceweather.com.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»