Jets and Sprites

Giga Jet - China

Gigantic Jet Lightning over China
Image Credit & Copyright: Phebe Pan
 
That's no meteor. While watching and photographing this year's Perseid Meteor Shower, something unexpected happened: a gigantic jet erupted from a nearby cloud. The whole thing was over in a flash -- it lasted less than a second -- but was fortunately captured by an already-recording digital camera. Gigantic jets are a rare form of lightning recognized formally only a few years ago. The featured high resolution color image, taken near the peak of Shikengkong mountain in China, may be the best image yet of this unusual phenomena. The same event appears to have been captured simultaneously by another photographer, further away. The gigantic jet appears to start somewhere in a nearby thundercloud and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research.

For more, read full NASA-APOD article!

Also recommend to check GE photo layer and take a look around this miraculous mountain.

need to fix exact photo location...
Gigantic Jet Lightning - 2016..kmz (916 B)

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To give a basic overview of the subject, also I share this good info-graphic here in my first posting:

Types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs):

image source: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Lightning_sprites.jpg

Google Image Search for "red sprites photograph 2019"

Red Sprite Lightning over Kununurra
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Broady

Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 30 years ago: red sprites. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image, taken just over a week ago in Kununurra, Western Australia, captured some red sprites while shooting a time-lapse sequence of a distant lightning storm. Pictured, green trees cover the foreground, dark mountains are seen on the horizon, ominous storm clouds hover over the distant land, while red sprites appear in front of stars far in the distance. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

more from source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190225.html

approx. photo location, any to fix would be fine!
Kununurra Sprites.kmz (759 B)

Gigantic Jet Lightning over India
Image Credit & Copyright: Hung-Hsi Chang

Explanation: Yes, but can your lightning bolt do this? While flying from Munich to Singapore earlier this month, an industrious passenger took images of a passing lightning storm and caught something unexpected: gigantic jet lightning. The jet was captured on a single 3.2-second exposure above Bhadrak, India. Although the gigantic jet appears connected to the airplane's wing, it likely started in a more distant thundercloud, and can be seen extending upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research.

More from source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190918.html

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Placemark, set to photo-view* attached:
Gigantic Jet Lightning over India - 2019. S....kmz (979 B)
(*The river bend with the isle -at the bottom of the image- and coastlines clearly can be recognized.)

This one makes me think of how many things could exist we cannot even imagine... 

Sprite Lightning in HD
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (TWAN)

Explanation: This phenomenon occurs in the sky over our heads, not the sea. It is a type of lightning known as red sprite, and rarely has it ever been photographed in this detail. Even though sprites have been recorded for over 30 years, their root cause remains unknown. Some thunderstorms have them, but most don't. These mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish. A few years ago high speed videos were taken detailing how red sprites actually develop. The featured image was captured last month in high definition from Italy. One unusual feature of sprites is that they are relatively cold -- they operate more like long fluorescent light tubes than hot compact light bulbs. In general, red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

More from source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191008.html

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No good to post 2 replies within such short interval of time, but could not stand not sharing this shocking HD photo with you...

For missing kmz attachment:
If you happen to know any closer on where was photo taken, please let us know!

WOW! These are Insane! Ive never seen anything like that before, the closest thing ive seen is an upward lighting strike.

The air in the ionosphere is so thin, thats probably why it fractals outward in such extraordinary patterns. Also the color is vibrant and amazing! Maybe it comes from an interaction with the magnetosphere. Very intriguing!

I wonder how an ancient humans would perceive this phenomena, probably totally unrelated but made me thing of this

These are existing only for a millisecond or so, that pretty invisible to the naked (human) eye.

Otherwise I think some similar - as if it would be about the transition zone between earth and space.

These occure at the border of pressure and vacuum, at the deadlock where our planet is integrating into the texture of the universe. 

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cool illustration image! (:

Now this one I could perfectly locate - GMaps SV link for the pier where the photo taken and as kmz attachment below:
Red Sprites - Lake Arcadia.kmz (1.02 KB)


Photo by Paul M. Smith - Web page: spritechaser.com

A 5 years old ISS astronaut photo of a bunch of Red Sprites somewhere above northern Mexico.

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Full frame
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Detail[/slide]

NASA Photo ID ISS044-E-45553

Date taken 2015.08.10

Time taken 07:58:51 GMT

Image Caption: Red Sprites Above the U.S. and Central America

Viewing from a point over northwest Mexico, astronauts aboard the International Space Station looked northeast and shot this unusual photograph of a red sprite above the white light of an active thunderstorm (image top left). The sprite was 2,200 kilometers (1,400 miles) away, high over Missouri or Illinois; the lights of Dallas, Texas appear in the foreground. The sprite shoots up to the greenish airglow layer, near a rising moon.

These photos show the sprite's tendrils reaching as much as 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. Sprites are major electrical discharges, but they are not lightning in the usual sense. Instead, they are a cold plasma phenomenon without the extremely hot temperatures of lightning that we see underneath thunderstorms. Red sprites are more like the discharge of a fluorescent tube. Bursts of sprite energy are thought to occur during most large thunderstorm events. They were first photographed in 1989.

More from the GAPE

I do not think we need a placemark for this one. It is only a very good shot to scale and position these exotic, cold plasma features.

Meeting in the Mesosphere
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (TWAN, Nuits sacrees)

Explanation: A sensitive video camera on a summit of the Vosges mountains in France captured these surprising fireworks above a distant horizon on June 26. Generated over intense thunderstorms, this one about 260 kilometers away, the brief and mysterious flashes have come to be known as red sprites. The transient luminous events are caused by electrical breakdown at altitudes of 50 to 100 kilometers. That puts them in the mesophere, the coldest layer of planet Earth's atmosphere. The glow beneath the sprites is from more familiar lighting though, below the storm clouds. But on the right, the video frames have captured another summertime apparition from the mesophere. The silvery veins of light are polar mesospheric clouds. Also known as noctilucent or night shining clouds, the icy clouds still reflect the sunlight when the Sun is below the horizon.

more from source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200704.html

Red sprites and PMCs June 26. 2020. - Vosge....kmz (1.45 KB) # Attached kmz placemark is set to approximate camera location and direction of view.