Posted on Mar 30, 2021

APOD: 2021 March 30 - Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes

Maj William W. 'Bill' Price

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Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes." The Las Campanas Observatory (operated by a consortium of five universities) is located high in the southern reaches of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and provides a superb site for viewing all things skyward. And thunderstorms occur regularly on the Argentine side of the Andes. So what does that have to do with red sprites? Well, lets see...clear skies? Check. Frequent, powerful thunderstorms? Check. Red-sensitive recording equipment? Check (after all, this is an observatory). Unlit skies? Check.

Here we see red sprites associated with a thunderstorms occurring during (as the locals call it) 'Bolivian winter.' Scientists have gathered sufficient data to identify three categories of sprite lightning: jelly-fish, column (or C-sprite), and carrot (a column sprite with tendrils). FWIW I would call these Chilean jellyfish sprites.

APOD: 2021 March 30 - Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes

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 Picture of the Day (APOD) for march 30, 2021 entitled "Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes."

Image: Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes - Image Credit & Copyright - Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

APOD Background
"Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 30 years ago: red sprites. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image was taken earlier this year from Las Campanas observatory in Chile over the Andes Mountains in Argentina. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side."

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

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen LTC (Join to see) SCPO Morris Ramsey MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Sgt Albert Castro PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSG Stephen Rogerson SSG Samuel Kermon SSG Franklin Briant SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson SMSgt David A Asbury A1C Riley Sanders Alan K. SPC Michael Oles SR TSgt David L. Maj Marty Hogan

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LTC Stephen F.

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