- The lightning we see here on the surface is just a kind of storm phenomenon, and others happen in places we can’t see from the ground.
- Lightning also produces incredible views in the space above the clouds, expanding into the atmosphere in colors we never see in a cloud-to-ground lightning.
- A new image captured by researchers at NOIRLab gives us an incredible look at two rarely seen lightning features that are playing at exactly the same time.
We are all familiar with what happens when a storm rolls through our throat. We have rain, wind, thunder and, of course, lightning. Seeing a cloud-to-ground lightning can be a truly spectacular experience – as long as you’re not in close proximity – but those energy bolts are just part of the lightning story. The rest is played above the clouds and it could be argued that the rarely seen displays that are hidden from our view from the ground are actually even more amazing.
In a new image posted by NOIRLab, we are treated not with one, but with two such phenomena frozen in time. The image was captured near Mauna Kea, a latent volcano in Hawaii that houses several high-powered telescopes. What we see in the photo is lightning that directs its power to the sky in the form of features known as red sprites and blue jets. You can clearly see how they earned their name.
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The photo looks almost fake and would have forgiven you for thinking it was. We never get to see lightning like these and see them from a place on Earth, rather than from above, is especially rare. The differences between jets and sprites have everything to do with where they are located in the atmosphere. The red sprites look like streaks of flowing tentacles, while the blue jets look like solid plasma beams that are thrown into space.
This diagram of the European Space Agency does an excellent job of showing the difference between the two phenomena, but because both are the products of lightning shooting up, they are still closely linked.
NOIRLab provides an additional context:
Red sprites and blue jets are distinct due to their colors and also the direction in which they strike. As you can see in this image, the red and blue lights rise from the top of the cloud deck and crash into space, instead of descending to Earth. It is extremely rare to catch these phenomena on camera and even more so from this unique perspective.
The photo was taken by ground cameras called “Cloud Cams”, which are located near the Gemini North telescope. The telescopes placed there look deep into space, but this photo reminds us very well that some pretty incredible things are happening right here, at home.
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Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games over the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, portable devices, smartphones and future technology. Most recently, Mike served as technical editor at The Daily Dot and was featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and prints. His love of reporting is second only to gambling addiction.