In recent years, scientists have been able to document a rare phenomenon seen in the sky: red lighting eerily shaped like tentacles of a glowing, crimson jellyfish displaying itself majestically above us.
According to the European Space Agency, these spurts of lighting are known as “sprites,” and they are really quick electrical bursts that happen 27 to 50 miles up in the atmosphere that reach towards space. Sprites have been seen displaying themselves in every continent so far, except Antartica since they were discovered back in 1989. There isn’t much information known about this phenomenon yet, aside from them lasting mere tenths of a second that generally occur behind heavy, stormy clouds.
Last July, an expert on dark skies from the Austin McDonald Observatory, Stephen Hummel was able to capture the perfect photo showcasing these sprites from a ridge on Mount Locke located in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. He was able to take this photo while recording hours upon hours of footage throughout the whole year. On the 2nd of July, he was 4 and a half hours into recoding, when he was able to capture the image of the sprite. Throughout 70 hours of his footage, he was able to capture 70 sprites just this year alone, he mentioned to Business Insider.
“Sprites usually appear to the eye as very brief, dim, grey structures. You need to be looking for them to spot them, and oftentimes I am not certain I actually saw one until I check the camera footage to confirm,” said Hummel.
Sprite medusa. Foto Stephen Hummel pic.twitter.com/WDdDcKPzG4
— Gustavo Vela (@GustavoVela71) August 15, 2020
These alien-like jellyfish lightning creatures are likely seen dangling from the ionosphere, which is the layer that lies above the lower atmosphere. There have also been cases where they resemble red pillars that end with curling tendrils mostly being described as ‘carrot curls.’
Because they appear only during massive storms above the earth’s surface, sprites are not easy to see from the ground. They are far easier to be seen from the International Space Station, such as this occasion that was beautifully captured last August 2015.
Here’s some sprite lightning as photographed from the International Space Station in August 2015. City lights in an orbital blur, a flash of red, stars everywhere. It is so unbelievably cool we get to live on this planet. (credit: NASA/Expedition 44) pic.twitter.com/G1Ie7Z4II7
— Adrienne LaFrance (@AdrienneLaF) August 15, 2020
Davd Sentman, late University of Alaska professor coined the magical name ‘sprites’ for this weather phenomenon because it was “well suited to describe their appearance” and light, fairy-like nature.
There have been cases of sprites seen that are absolutely massive, much like Hummel’s photo showing them towering “probably around 30 miles long and 30 miles tall,” he said.
Despite the nature of their occurrence, not all thunderstorms produce sprites. They usually occur when lightning hits the ground, which releases positive electrical energy that needs an oppositely charged electrical discharge to balance that energy throughout the sky.
“The more powerful the storm and the more lightning it produces, the more likely it is to produce a sprite,” said Hummel.
The red glow is that result of nitrogen gas seen high up in the atmosphere that reacts because of the burns of electricity from lightning strikes. When the sprites spark, it becomes red because of the nitrogen floating across the Earth’s atmosphere. The gas is excited by that burst of electricity, emitting a red glow all throughout.
Multiple column sprites line up above an angel sprite in my last sprite lightning capture from the night of 4/17/2019 . An uncropped image on the 50mm about 20 minutes before being clouded over. Anadarko, Oklahoma. #okwx #APOD @JimCantore @emilyrsutton @MichaelSeger pic.twitter.com/gXNlPMKucZ
— Paul M Smith (@PaulMSmithPhoto) April 21, 2019
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