Giant jets of red lightning that shoot out into space over Puerto Rico

[Celerity]

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/giant-jets-of-red-lightning-that-shoot-out-into-space-wvsds3s36

https://archive.is/ZbyMf

On August 4, 2024 intense thunderstorms erupted near Puerto Rico in the Caribbean with reports of something very strange — brief flashes of “red lightning” above the thunderclouds. By sheer chance, cameras used by astronomers in the Caribbean for recording meteors also caught images of a burst of red light shooting up into the heavens.

These lights were a rare phenomenon known as gigantic jets, lightning discharges that shoot up from the tops of thunderclouds and which can reach so high they can connect with the ionosphere 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. On June 18 gigantic jets were also photographed shooting up towards the Himalayas in China and Bhutan. But it is difficult to record the jets because they are only fleeting and so high up. The best view of them is from space and on July 1 astronauts on board the International Space Station captured a picture of a gigantic jet near Thailand.

Several other types of lightning phenomena can shoot up from the tops of thunderstorms, including red sprites, which can look similar. But gigantic jets are truly massive, up to ten times larger than typical conventional lightning strikes, and carry colossal amounts of current, hundreds of times more powerful than normal lightning bolts that come down to the ground. How gigantic jets and other lightning phenomena above thunderstorms are created is still something of a mystery. One clue may be that gigantic jets are typically seen from thunderstorms that don’t generate much in the way of conventional lightning strikes going to ground, so one theory is that the jets may be a way of releasing pent-up negative charges in the thundercloud

The jets may also play an important role in the global electric circuit that surrounds the Earth. The power of the jets could help to balance the huge differences in charges that build up between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. As the jets connect up with the ionosphere, their charges surge through this electrified layer of the upper atmosphere and then discharge back down to Earth through conventional lightning bolts in thunderstorms, completing a global electric circuit.

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[tornado34jh]

1. The picture looks like something called sprites

They are very difficult to get, and that is often because it is a very deep red color, especially in its upper parts. Towards the longer end of red, our eyes aren't as sensitive to the wavelengths, but cameras are better at detecting them. They also are very brief, many hundredths or thousandths of a second. So it is rare to capture them. But usually to capture these require the thunderstorms to be further out than this picture, often 100 miles away or so. The pictures I have seen of them are mostly in the Rocky mountains and Europe. It could very well be gigantic jets considering how close this storm is.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. that teaches me to rub my shoes on the carpet.

ohm myyyy!