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> Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space
Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space
author: Nasa/Novapix
reference: t-nua06-00044
Image Size 300 DPI: 41 * 27 cm
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station shot this unusual photograph of a red sprite above the white light of an active thunderstorm (right). Sprites are major electrical discharges, but they are not lightning in the usual sense. Instead, they are a cold plasma phenomenon without the extremely hot temperatures of lightning that we see underneath thunderstorms. Red sprites are more like the discharge of a fluorescent tube. Bursts of sprite energy are thought to occur during most large thunderstorm events. They were first photographed in 1989.
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