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Credit & Copyright: Richard Smedley
Explanation:
Have you ever seen a gigantic jet?
They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful.
Gigantic jets
are a newly discovered type of lightning discharge between some
thunderstorms and the Earth's
ionosphere high above them.
Pictured above is one such jet caught by accident by a meteor camera in
Oklahoma,
USA.
The gigantic jet, at the lower left, traversed perhaps 70 kilometers in just under
one second.
Clicking on the image will bring up a movie in many browsers, also visible
here.
Gigantic jets are much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and
cloud-to-ground lightning.
The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar in appearance to another type
cloud-to-ionosphere strike called
blue jets, while the tops appear similar
to
upper-atmosphere
red sprites.
Although the mechanism and
trigger that causes gigantic jets is a topic of research,
it is clear that the jets reduce charge imbalance between different parts of Earth's
atmosphere.
A good way to look for
gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but distant thunderstorm from a clear location.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Oklahoma
Publications with words: Oklahoma
See also: