- The lightning we see here on the surface is just one type of storm phenomenon, and others occur in places we can’t see from the ground.
- Lightning also produces incredible views of space above the clouds, which extend into the atmosphere with colors we never see from a lightning from a cloud on the ground.
- A new image captured by NOIRLab researchers gives us an incredible view of two lightning functions that are rarely seen at the same time.
We are all familiar with what happens when a storm passes through our neck of the forest. We have rain, wind, thunder and of course lightning. Seeing a cloud of lightning on the ground can be a truly spectacular experience, as long as you’re not in the vicinity, but these power bolts are just one part of the story of lightning. The rest is played above the clouds and it could be argued that the screens that are rarely seen and hidden from our ground view are even more impressive.
In a new image published by NOIRLab, it is not about one, but two phenomena frozen in time. The image was captured near Mauna Kea, a latent volcano in Hawaii that houses multiple high-powered telescopes. What we see in the photo is lightning directing its power toward the sky in the form of features known as red sprites and blue jets. You can clearly see how their names were earned.
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The photo almost looks fake and you would be forgiven for thinking it was like that. We never get to see lightning like this, and seeing it from a point on Earth instead of from very high up is especially rare. The differences between jets and sprites have everything to do with their location in the atmosphere. Red sprites look like flares with flowing tentacles, while blue jets look like solid plasma beams that shoot into space.
This graph from the European Space Agency does a great job of showing the difference between the two phenomena, but since both are the product of lightning firing upwards, they are still closely related.
NOIRLab offers an additional context:
Red sprites and blue rays are distinctive for their colors and also for the direction in which they impact. As you can see in this image, the red and blue lights shoot up from the top of the cloud cover and impact into space, rather than down to Earth. It is extremely rare to capture these phenomena on camera and even more so from this unique perspective.
The photograph was captured by ground cameras called “Cloud Cams”, which are located near the Gemini North telescope. The telescopes located there are released deep into space, but this photo reminds us that there are some pretty amazing things happening right here at home.
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Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games over the past decade, addressing the latest developments and trends in VR, portable devices, smartphones and future technology. Most recently, Mike worked as a technical editor at The Daily Dot and has appeared on USA Today, Time.com and countless other web and print outlets. His love of reporting is only second to his addiction to games.