The sprite season begins with a beautiful danse at the edge of space.
This strange and beautiful form of lightnings are red, fleeting, and tend to come in bunches, associated with thunderstorms. Thunderstorm season is sprite season.
This red sprite is more rock’n roll, similar to a pump up girl with her to arms lift up in the air:
Finally, these strange lightnings may be also more classical like this ballerina or skate dancer twisting in the air:
As described by lightning scientist Oscar van der Velde:
[quote_box_center]Sprites are a true space weather phenomenon. 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.[/quote_box_center]
Discover more transient luminous events here!
