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Gigantic jets over Pilbara, Australia on March 28, 2017

gigantic-jets-over-pilbara-australia-on-march-28-2017

Photographer Jeff Miles from Australia has captured several amazing images of very elusive gigantic jets, otherwise known as ionospheric lightning.

Miles witnessed 6 jets on the night of March 28 near a small town in the Pilbara part of Western Australia and you can see some of them below. 

"Gigantic jets have only been captured on camera a handful of times and this night I was lucky enough to see 6 jets," he said. "This was a mind-blowing experience to see with my eyes, never mind researching the photos to find out just how rare they are!"

Gigantic jets, along with sprites, elves, blue jets and blue starters, are classified as transient luminous events (TLE). They are a type of upper-atmospheric lightning or ionospheric lightning.

Upper-atmospheric lightning is believed to be electrically induced form of luminous plasma. The preferred usage is transient luminous event, because the various types of electrical-discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere lack several characteristics of the more familiar tropospheric lightning.

Featured image copyright: Jeff Mills – March 28, 2017, Snappermiles Photography. Image used with permission. 

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5 Comments

  1. this seems to be happening a lot here in the last year or so i wonder if we have some thing going on outside of our atmosphere that would generate plasma discharges like this………..

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