Posted on Jan 4, 2021

APOD: 2021 January 4 - Sprite Lightning at 100000 Frames Per Second

Maj William W. 'Bill' Price

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Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Sprite Lightning at 100000 Frames Per Second." Recall that sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, giving rise to a range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are cold plasma phenomena that lack the hot channel temperatures of what we associate with lightning, so they are more akin to a fluorescent tube lighting up when we turn it on. Anyway, I was under the impression that sprites were an upward discharge brought about by a cloud to ground stroke from a thunderhead beneath.

At 100,000 frames per second, video data tells a different story. In this 23-second clip, you see what researchers are calling sprite 'bombs' falling from the D-region ionosphere (about 40-55 miles up) that initiate sprite formation. The D-region ionosphere is an area characterized by a lack of free electrons (at night they re-attach with ionized oxygen to form oxygen molecules). The "bombs" (kilometer-sized balls of plasma) slow down and stop to form the stationary glow in the vicinity of the sprite streamer onset, from where streamers suddenly emerge. A fascinating sight...from a safe distance.

APOD: 2021 January 4 - Sprite Lightning at 100000 Frames Per Second

Posted from apod.nasa.gov

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LTC Stephen F.

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Red Sprite

Provided to YouTube by JVCKENWOOD Victor Entertainment Corp.Red Sprite · MoriAMBITIOUS JVCKENWOOD Victor EntertainmentReleased on: 2009-05-20Composer: 西嶋徹A...

Thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Video of the Day (AVOD) for Monday, January 4, 2020 entitled "Sprite Lightning at 100000 Frames Per Second."

Images:
1. Red sprite lightning (Image - Stephane Vetter (TWAN)).
2. Lightning Sprite image
3. 2021-01-04 Transient Luminous Events - Frankie Lucena chart

AVOD background
"Explanation: What causes sprite lightning? Mysterious bursts of light in the sky that momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish have been recorded for over 30 years, but apart from a general association with positive cloud-to-ground lightning, their root cause remains unknown. Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't. Recently, however, high speed videos are better detailing how sprites actually develop. The featured video, captured in mid-2019, is fast enough -- at about 100,000 frames per second -- to time-resolve several sprite "bombs" dropping and developing into the multi-pronged streamers that appear on still images. Unfortunately, the visual clues provided by videos like these do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery. High speed videos do indicate to some researchers, though, that sprites are more likely to occur when plasma irregularities exist in the upper atmosphere.'

Red Sprite · Mori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdCr3bmqGU4

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LTC Stephen F.

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