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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.

Keywords for this photo:

2015 - ATMOSPHERE - CLOUD - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - EXPEDITION 44 - LIGHT POLLUTION - LIMB - METEOROLOGY - NIGHT - SPRITE - THUNDERSTORM - TLE - Transient Luminous Event -