Have you ever seen a red lightning bolt? It’s a real phenomenon.
Recently, the official Instagram account of National Geographic shared stunning images of this occurrence. To be honest, they are breathtaking.
Red Lightning.
The above photo was taken by photographer Babak Tafreshi, capturing a close-up of a natural phenomenon known as “Red Sprite.” Essentially, sprites are large-scale electrical discharges occurring just above thunderstorm clouds, also known as cumulonimbus clouds, at altitudes of 50 to 90 km.
However, referring to it as upper-atmospheric lightning isn’t entirely accurate. The nature of a sprite is to release cold plasma rays, resembling the discharge process in fluorescent tubes more than typical lightning.
Sprites usually appear orange-red. However, they are almost colorless when observed with the naked eye, only displaying their true colors under the lenses of sufficiently sensitive cameras. On the other hand, sprites occur extremely quickly, making it incredibly challenging to capture their images.
This is why Tafreshi’s photograph is considered extremely rare, as there have not been many recorded instances in history. The name “sprite” (translated as: air spirit) was also derived from their characteristics.
Wide-angle shot of Red Sprite.
The existence of sprites was first identified by Johann Georg Estor in 1730 when he noticed an optical phenomenon occurring above thunderstorm clouds. By 1925, C.T.R. Wilson, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, hypothesized that there was an electrical discharge occurring above thunderstorm clouds, and in 1956, he confidently stated that he had observed a sprite.
However, it wasn’t until 1989 that photographic evidence of sprites was captured by a sensitive camera operated by a group of experts from the University of Minnesota. Since the accurate identification of sprites, reports of them have continuously emerged, becoming a subject of thorough scientific study.
A Dangerous and Mysterious Phenomenon for Aviation
Sprites have been recorded in the Americas, Europe, Central Africa, Australia, Japan, and several countries in Asia. Matthew Geoff McHarg from the United States Air Force has classified sprites into three types based on their shapes, including:
- Jellyfish Sprite: an extremely large type of sprite, spanning up to 50 km.
- Column Sprite (C-sprite): a type of sprite that is not yet fully understood.
- Carrot Sprite
Jellyfish Sprite.
Carrot Sprite.
Historically, sprites are believed to have caused several incidents in the aerospace industry when aircraft flew above thunderstorm clouds. For example, NASA’s stratospheric balloon launched on June 6, 1989, lost significant control when it reached an altitude of 37 km, surpassing a storm in Texas.
Months after the accident, experts concluded that the balloon had been “struck by lightning“ while passing through the thunderstorm. By 1993, the cause was attributed to sprites, as the term had just emerged.
