Two Mystery Red Sprites Appear Under Thunderstorm Clouds in Croatia – November 2014

0

This is the kind of very lucky shot that astronomers are looking for every day.

Look at these red sprites captured as a lucky break in the thunderstorm clouds formed over Croatia, yesterday!

High above Earth in the realm of meteors and noctilucent clouds, a strange and beautiful form of lightning dances at the edge of space. Researchers call the bolts “sprites”; they are red, fleeting, and tend to come in bunches.

These two groups of red sprites were shot by by Martin Popek over Croatia at 539 and 556 km distance from his observation site (Nydek in Czech Republic) on November 6, 2014.

red sprite november 20014, red sprite photo 2014, red sprite croatia november 2014, Two groups of red sprites have been spotted under thunderstorm clouds in Croatia on November 5, 2014., sky phenomenon, space phenomenon, space weather, red sprites, croatia, november 2014
Two groups of red sprites have been spotted under thunderstorm clouds in Croatia on November 5, 2014.

Sprites are a true space weather phenomenon as they develop in mid-air around 80 km altitude, growing in both directions, first down, then up. This happens when a fierce lightning bolt draws lots of charge from a cloud near Earth’s surface. Electric fields [shoot] to the top of Earth’s atmosphere–and the result is a sprite. The entire process takes about 20 milliseconds.

red sprite november 20014, red sprite photo 2014, red sprite croatia november 2014, Two groups of red sprites have been spotted under thunderstorm clouds in Croatia on November 5, 2014, The second group of red sprites over Croatia on November 5, 2014., sky phenomenon, space phenomenon, space weather, red sprites, croatia, november 2014
The second group of red sprites over Croatia on November 5, 2014.

The lucky astronomer uploaded a video of his sightings on an astronomy portal of Czech Republic. Just to tell you. Srites are so fast you will hardly see anything.  I hope you enjoyed!

Follow us:  Facebook  und  Twitter

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.