High Speed Video of Sprites in the Upper Atmosphere
The night sky above the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The six panels below the main image magnify a series of extremely rare atmospheric phenomenon known as sprites.
P. Horálek/ESO via Wikimedia Commons
I’m back at the American Geophysical Union meeting again today.
The scientists, Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen, Geoff McHarg, and Yukihiro Takahashi would check the weather around the country for the heavy storms that can trigger these events, and when appropriate, take off in a pair of planes from an airport near Denver. They flew over the storms at 40,000-45,000 feet looking for the fleeting flashes.
Always difficult to spot, the sprites last for very short periods of time and emit light at a wavelength at the far red end of the visible spectrum. A potential observer might blink and miss one, or even not recognize it because of the color.
The scientists worked with the Japanese television network NHK to capture high-speed video. One of the television team told me that the flashes spread to a size of 30 miles by 20 miles. The video they provided was taken at 16,000 frames per second.
For future research, McHarg said they would like to increase the frame rate by three times because it might allow them to see more detail about how the events branch and split.
