After years of trace violent sprites as “ rare ” and “ elusive , ” astronauts on the International Space Station are out to prove me incorrect . They snap two entirely unrelated sprites above thunderstorms in the Midwest and Mexico within minutes . What ’s going on ? !
Red sprite over Missouri or Illinois as seen from 2,200 kilometers away over Mexico . epitome credit : NASA / Earth Observatory
If this photo of a red sprite over the Midwest looks eerily familiar , it ’s not déjà vu . We previously squealed an entirely unrelatedred sprite over a thunderstorm in Mexicophotographed by the same astronauts just mo later . If the timing seems implausible , it is certainly a very rarefied occurance : we only got our first photograph of a red sprite in 1989 , andour first coloring pic in 1994 . Whilethese are n’t the first photographs of red sprites we ’ve ever seen from space , the total number is still countably small enough to be a very pantie veranda .
Both sprites were photographed by spaceman aboard the International Space Station on August 20 , 2015.NASA ’s Earth Observatory explains :
reckon from a point over northwest Mexico , astronauts aboard the International Space Station looked northeast and pip this unusual picture of a crimson faery above the blanched illumination of an active thunderstorm . In the top image , the sprite was 2,200 klick ( 1,400 sea mile ) away , richly over Missouri or Illinois ; the lights of Dallas , Texas appear in the foreground . The sprite shoots up to the greenish airglow layer , near a rising moon .
Two minutes and 58 seconds later , as the ISS was over the coastal Mexican resort of Acapulco , the crew documented another red sprite ( low image ) over a brilliant white thundercloud and lightning sack near the seashore of El Salvador . The shorter distance to the storm — about 1,150 klick ( 710 miles)—makes it somewhat easier to see detail of the sprite . City light are a diffuse yellow because they are shining through clouds .
Along with the new image of the Midwestern sprite , they ’ve also released an annotated version of the Mexican red faerie we were cooing over last week :
ruddy sprite over Mexico as seen from 1,150 kilometers away over El Salvador . figure course credit : NASA / Earth Observatory
For a farsighted time we thought red faery were a form of lightning , but thanks in part to our tardily - growing collection of photographs we ’ve see they ’re in reality frigid plasma electrical firing . cherry sprites are usually associated with thunderstorm , with clusters of tendrils stretch out up to one hundred kilometer grandiloquent .
This is bug out to find a bit like public theodolite : after waiting for years , a pair sprites show up within moment of each other just where the astronauts happen to be looking . If someone need to begin in on the cabal hypothesis connect these red sprites , we ’re mind !
[ NASA ]
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