The Fabulous World of Lightning: Sprites, Dwarves and Elves

We are accustomed that lightning strikes from the top down, descending from the clouds to the ground. A bright flash of white light always produces a magical effect on the observers, but at the same time overshadows something more amazing. If during a severe thunderstorm you look behind the clouds, then you will see a truly magical performance...

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Sprites

Sprites- a huge colony of red lightning, with a length of tens of kilometers, to reach up into the ionosphere. They are constantly moving, dancing, and almost always come in clusters, organized in a circle.

The first observation of sprites caused an alarm that they could be a threat to aircraft. Because the lifting up above the clouds no longer guarantee security. But a detailed study of this phenomenon showed that sprites are formed at an altitude 55-130 km from the earth's surface.

RED SPRITE BURSTS (Realtime & Slow Motion) Supercell Lightning Storm

It is striking in its beauty phenomenon was first discovered in 1989, but still not been studied in detail. Sprites are born only in a very strong storm or the hurricane, on top of storm clouds.

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A few simple words about the origin of lightning: particles of ice and moisture in thunderstorms clouds move with high speed and constantly collide with each other, charged with electricity. As a result, in the lower part of the cloud, there is an area with a large number of negatively charged particles. And in the upper part formed area with positively charged particles. These are the future sources of lightning.

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90% of all lightning are born in the lower part of the clouds, i.e. in a zone with a negative charge- it is usual lightning, which move in the direction from the clouds to the ground. But the remaining 10% are born in the upper zone, and positive charges gives them tremendous power- this indomitable sprites.

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These monsters rush into the ionosphere and can capture a region with a diameter of 100-200 km and their length varies from 40-60 km. They are so powerful that even rush through all the cloud down, but disintegrate before they reach earth.

A sprite is born through hundredths of a second after the ordinary lightning and lives not longer than 100 milliseconds, but leaves an imprint in the memory forever. The bright red color of lightning is the result of a high nitrogen concentration in the upper atmosphere.

Jets (Dwarves)

Not less striking are the younger brothers of sprites- Jets. They also tend upwards, instead of crashing to the Ground. Jets are almost imperceptible to the human eye, their life cycle is shorter than the sprites, literally thousandths of a second.

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They occur at an altitude of 15-30 km from the ground, but beat at a distance of 80 km, like trying to catch up with their older brothers. A large cluster of lightning compressed into a cone, bright white-blue color. Sometimes they are called dwarves because they live under the sprites.

Jet Lightning near Hawaii

Elves

However, the main stars of the heavenly show are the ephemeral Elves. These glowing red-purple rings occur in the lower ionosphere at altitudes of 80-100 kilometers. In less than a millisecond, the glow, arising in the center, expands to 300-400 kilometers and fades away. Unfortunately, due to their short life cycle we know even less about them than about sprites and jets. Truly elusive "creatures".

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All these fabulous phenomena accompany the planet throughout its history. But science noticed them only 40 years ago, and to this day has very little knowledge about them. Ordinary people see them rarely, we used to look at what is happening under the cloud, and not over it. But now, I hope, some of us will start looking for amazing dance of red sprites in stormy skies.

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sources: Jet Lightning! Rarely Seen 'Gigantic Jets', Sprite (lightning), The most powerful lightning, National Geographic, What Is A Red Sprite?, images from Google Search

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