In the sky dancing sprites

An unusually strong spring storms swept through this month on the South-Eastern United States, forcing local residents to take cover from hail and tornadoes. Paul Smith of Edmond in Oklahoma (USA) took this photo on April 22. He said that throughout the night there was a hail and there were tornado warning. Smith photographed these sprites around midnight.

Sprites are electrical discharges in storm clouds. Ordinary lightning beat-down and sprite — up. They can occur at a height of 90 km and more.

Smith noted that his camera was directed towards Oklahoma city, and the sprites were 240 miles away.

In the observation of sprites that distance is what you need. This allows you to cover the area on top of cumulonimbus clouds, which can appear sprites.

This season could be one of the best for watching the sprites in the history of the solar minimum. As soon as the solar magnetic field weakens, more cosmic rays reaches the Earth. Some researchers believe that they create a conductive path in the atmosphere, which leads to the appearance of sprites.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»