Lightning sprites, elves caught on camera
DEC 08, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025755
National Geographic : Huge, quick, and brighter than the planet Venus as seen from Earth, sprites, elves, blue jets, and crawlers are bursts of electrical energy associated with large thunderstorms. Along with lightning and the auroras, the phenomena are luminous plasmas characterized by intermediate concentrations of free electrons (see Physics Today, November 2001, page 41 ). Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen, of the University of Alaska, and colleagues have now created the first stereoscopic images of the sprites and other bursts by filming them at 10 000 frames per second from two different angles and combining the images. Sprites and related phenomena occur in the mesosphere and may create electrical conduits between the thunderstorms they accompany and the ionosphere, a part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere that plays an important part in atmospheric electricity.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
