Enhanced sprite activity end of November 2016 over Spain

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In the last 10 days, an enhanced sprite activety is reported in the sky from Spain due to strong lightning storms.

Fire in the sky!

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Aliens or angels? Sprite form over thunderstorm in Spain. By Serge Soula from Laboratoire d’Aerologie, Toulouse

Thunderstorms are ferocious natural phenomena. Crackles of lightning and booms of thunder reign over the surface of the Earth. However, something else occasionally floats ethereally above the storm clouds: a short-lived sprite.

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Look at this jellyfish sprite! By Serge Soula from Laboratoire d’Aerologie, Toulouse

A sprite is a weak flash of light that appears above a thunderstorm. They are usually red, with wispy red or purple tendrils that extend downwards toward the storm cloud.

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These two sprites look like dancing ballerinas. By Serge Soula from Laboratoire d’Aerologie, Toulouse

Their red color is thought to be from electrons in the vicinity being suddenly accelerated from the electrical charge from the storm. As the electrons whizz around, they collide with nitrogen molecules in the air and ionize them. This process produces red light.

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As if the sky became a dark ocean. By Serge Soula from Laboratoire d’Aerologie, Toulouse

The tendrils’ purple color, on the other hand, is postulated to be caused by cosmic rays being accelerated by the electric discharges produced by the lightning storm, however, this is only a theory.

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Fire in the sky! By Serge Soula from Laboratoire d’Aerologie, Toulouse

But what causes the sprites themselves? Scientists theorized that gravity waves create small perturbations in the atmosphere. These little disturbances can grow the electric field produced by lightning, initiating a sprite. But nobody is sure how these strange upward lightnings actually form.

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