Science of how red sprites and blue jets form over thunderstorms. Some of the greatest red sprites ever caught on camera with easy to understand explanations including a new discovery are highlighted in this video. Explore the colorful world of Transient Luminous Events including gigantic jets, elves, halos and more as they are initiated by massive horizontally extensive lightning flashes in thunderstorms far below.
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RED SPRITES and BLUE JETS EXPLAINED
On rare nights with clear visibility over powerful distant thunderstorms, you might be able to see and capture red sprites. Sprites are large scale electrical discharges occurring high above thunderstorms in the upper atmosphere. They are massive events, sometimes 50 kilometers tall by 50 kilometers wide. Sprites belong to a mysterious and colorful group of phenomenon called Transient Luminous Events, or TLEs. Other TLE’s include halos, Elves, trolls, secondary jets, Blue starters, Blue jets and the magnificent gigantic jets. But what exactly are these transient luminous Events, and how do they form?
In 2019 I teamed up with one of the most successful TLE photographers in the world, Paul Smith. Our objective was to simultaneously document TLEs from different locations to help US understand and CAPTURE them better. We didn’t know what we would find, if anything… But we never expected to DISCOVER a NEW TLE.
RED SPRITE DISCOVERY
Visual reports of Transient Luminous Events date back several centuries.
It wasn’t until 1989 that the first ones were accidentally caught on camera.
Years after discovery, they were named sprites for their spirit like nature.
BASIC PHYSICS:
In my last video we showed how one lightning flash can abruptly change the electric field triggering a second lightning flash in a sort of domino effect. Sprites are also initiated by a large electric field change that occurs during a massive horizontally extensive lightning strike far below. These parent flashes transfer huge amounts of charge and are almost always positive in polarity… Meaning that the earth rapidly gains a net positive charge from the strike. But pools of positive charge near the tops of thunderstorm complexes also change, abruptly gaining negative charge.
This suddenly creates a powerful electric field between the tops of thunderstorms and a high concentration of positively charged ions existing 100 kilometers or so up into the lower ionosphere. It’s this new imbalance that can initiate a sprite.
BLUE JETS:
On occasion, a cloud flash will have one end of the leader exit the upper extent of the thunderstorm and propagate toward the upper atmosphere. The rarified air and low pressure of the upper atmosphere leads to a visible transformation in the leader as the ionization travels upward. This is how a blue jet forms, as well as gigantic jets.
SECONDARY JETS:
Sometimes a large sprite event can trigger a second TLE. We call these secondary jets. Secondary jets become visible near the tops of thunderstorms where Nitrogen excites in the blues or purples and extend upward to altitudes where Nitrogen excites more red. In a photograph of a sprite and secondary jet event, you can see the gradual transitioning from blues to reds as the pressure quickly decreases in altitude.
NEW TLE DISCOVERY
On May 25, 2019 I was documenting a vibrant sprite storm over Oklahoma and captured something I’ve never seen or heard of. After two large sprite events, a mysterious green afterglow appeared. It seemed as if the sprite had triggered a small Aurora. Early that next morning I called Paul to discuss the strange captures. He was the first to agree it was something new and hypothesized that it was likely oxygen being excited by powerful sprites. Keeping in the theme of sprites, trolls and elves, we are referring to these Green emissions from excited Oxygen in Sprite Tops as GhOSTs.
CREDITS:
This video was made possible by the hard work and generosity of Paul Smith, Frankie Lucena, Scott Currens and research by lightning scientist Tom Warner. For more in-depth understanding of how lightning works, visit Tom Warners website at ZTresearch.com
MUSIC by Hank Schyma, Dan Workman and Christine Wu.