Powerful thunderstorms that hit parts of central Europe over the past couple of days produced a furious outburst of sprites. "It was unreal," Martin Popek, a well-known photographer of the upward directed bolts, told SpaceWeather.com. "I recorded more…
On June 8, 2016, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft captured an enormous ring of light high above a thunderstorm in southeast Colorado. "It only lasted about a millisecond, but it was definitely there. The ring was about 300 km (186 miles) wide," Ashcraft…
An enormous swarm of sprites was observed across the top of a thunderstorm during a severe weather outbreak in Oklahoma, US on May 23, 2016. The phenomenon was recorded by amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, almost 640 km (400 miles) away, SpaceWeather.com reports,…
For the first time ever, an image has been captured of an elusive electrical phenomenon above the Earth. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station imaged a kind of electrical discharge in the upper atmosphere known as a blue jet. In this Space News,…
A strong outburst of lightning from Hurricane "Hilda", in the Pacific Ocean, was reported by the National Weather Service on August 10, 2015. At first, the scientist thought the lightning was the so-called sprites phenomena, however, closer observation…
Sprite season – spectacular, eerie flashes of colored lights that appear high above the tops of powerful thunderstorms – is underway, SpaceWeather reports. Because sprites are associated with thunderstorms, they tend to occur in late spring and summer. "Sprites…
Atmospheric sprites have been known for nearly a century, but their origins were a mystery. Now, a team of researchers has evidence that sprites form at plasma irregularities and may be useful in remote sensing of the lower ionosphere."We are trying to understand t
