INCREDIBLE SKY PHENOMENON EXPLAINED NOW

Jason Ahrns (University of Alaska Fairbanks), caught some beautiful jellyfish while flying aboard the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V research jet over Oklahoma City. Check it out!

The jellyfish was actually a sky phenomenon -- an atmospheric sprite.

Sprites look like reddish orange luminescent jelly-fish on acid in heaven, with bluish filamentary tendrils hanging down below.

When a positively charged lightning bolt strikes the ground, it leaves the top of the thunderstorm negatively charged. If the charge builds up to a high enough level, a discharge results in the form of a red sprite.

Sprites form above thunderstorms in the D region of the ionosphere, between 37 and 56 miles above the Earth. And they usually form in summer skies.

Ahrns was working with SPRITE SPECTRA-II to determine the physical processes involved in sprites, and in particular the ionization of molecules in the blue part of the light spectrum.

The aircraft flew as high as possible, at about 200 km distance from thunderstorms, targeting  Mesoscale Convective Systems, MCS, due to their high number of lightning strikes.

High-speed imagers recorded the sprites with high temporal and spatial resolution, looking through new side-looking fused silica optical window panes.

Sprites are rare sights. They are normally obscured by clouds and light pollution. Even though some anecdotal reports date back to the 1700s, they were only proved to exist when they were first captured on film by an airline pilot in 1989.

Until now, no one knew where sprites come from.

But a team of scientists, led by Victor Pasko, an electrical engineer at Penn State recently studied high-speed video of sprites, and developed a model to explain the origins of sprites and to recreate sprite-forming conditions.

Findings were published in the journal in Nature Communications.

High-speed videos show the dynamics of sprite formation, which informs the modeling, which indicates that plasma irregularities in the ionosphere are necessary -- even though there is no evidence that irregularities existed.

What might have caused them? Meteors are a good possibility. This layer of the sky contains a slew of them.

“This technique can be used for remote sensing in the ionosphere as well,” said Pasko. “Using high speed videos and fluid models we may be able to see other things that go on in the ionosphere and better understand the effects of various natural phenomena on very low frequency radio communications.”

You can see sprites with your naked eye… but it’s better if you have those special cameras to see them in a fuller glory. They last only for a tiny fraction of a second.

Your best chance of seeing sprites in the United States is in the Midwest, from Colorado to Minnesota to Texas. They can also be seen in storms above South America, Africa, and Australia.

This summer, there were a lot more sprites happening than usual.

Thomas Ashcraft specializes in sprite imaging. His photos and videos are some of the most beautiful we’ve seen, including this one above, captured on 06.23.14. He estimates that this sprite was was 40 miles tall and 46 miles wide -- way bigger than Mt. Everest!

Ashcraft checks the weather services and regional radar maps to find out where strong thunderstorms are happening. He aims his cameras out towards the storms and shoots continuous two-second DSLR exposures.

It might take hundreds to usually thousands of exposures to capture one sprite portrait.

Check out Heliotown, Ashcraft’s website to learn more about his sprite photography. Check out this video and see some sprites in action:

Read more about Beautiful Sky, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Beautiful Sky Illusions Now.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Sky in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 09.14.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

PHOTO CREDITS:

1. Photo: by Jason Ahrns. Sky Sprites.
2. Photo: by Thomas Ashcraft. Sky Sprites.
3. Photo: by Jason Ahrns. Sky Sprites.
4. Photo: by Jason Ahrns. Sky Sprites.
5. Photo: by Luis Argerich. A Strange Red Sprite.
6. Photo: Courtesy of Penn State University. Plasma irregularities leading to sprite formation.
7. Photo: Courtesy of Penn State University. Sprite formation.
8. Photo: Courtesy of Penn State University. Meteor effects on sprite formation.
9. Photo: by Walter Lyons. “Red Sprite Lightning with Aurora.”
10. Photo: by Thomas Ashcraft. Sprite.
11. Photo: by Thomas Ashcraft. Red Sprite.
12. Photo: by Thomas Ashcraft. Sprite.
13. Image: by riverfox1. Atmospheric Sprite.