fbpx
Wikipedia

Sprite (lightning)

December 31, 2022

Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electric discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.

First color image of a sprite, taken from an aircraft
A sprite over Laos, as seen from the ISS

Sprites appear as luminous red-orange flashes. They often occur in clusters above the troposphere at an altitude range of 50–90 km (31–56 mi). Sporadic visual reports of sprites go back at least to 1886 [1] but they were first photographed on July 4, 1989,[2] by scientists from the University of Minnesota and have subsequently been captured in video recordings many thousands of times.

Sprites are sometimes inaccurately called upper-atmospheric lightning. However, sprites are cold plasma phenomena that lack the hot channel temperatures of tropospheric lightning, so they are more akin to fluorescent tube discharges than to lightning discharges. Sprites are associated with various other upper-atmospheric optical phenomena including blue jets and ELVES.[1]

History

The earliest known report of transient optical phenomena above thunderclouds is from Johann Georg Estor in 1730. Another early report is by Toynbee and Mackenzie in 1886.[3] Nobel laureate C. T. R. Wilson had suggested in 1925, on theoretical grounds, that electrical breakdown could occur in the upper atmosphere, and in 1956 he witnessed what possibly could have been a sprite. They were first documented photographically on July 6, 1989, when scientists from the University of Minnesota, using a low-light video camera, accidentally captured the first image of what would subsequently become known as a sprite.[4]

Several years after their discovery they were named sprites (air spirits) after their elusive nature.[5] Since the 1989 video capture, sprites have been imaged from the ground, from aircraft and from space, and have become the subject of intensive investigations. A featured high speed video that was captured by Thomas Ashcraft, Jacob L Harley, Matthew G McHarg, and Hans Nielsen in 2019 at about 100,000 frames per second is fast enough to provide better detailing of how sprites develop. However, according to NASA's APOD blog, despite being recorded in photographs and videos for the more than 30 years, the "root cause" of sprite lightning remains unknown, "apart from a general association with positive cloud-to-ground lightning." NASA also notes that not all storms exhibit sprite lightning.[6]

In 2016, sprites were observed during Hurricane Matthew's passage through the Caribbean.[7] The role of sprites in the tropical cyclones is presently unknown.[8]

Characteristics

 
Different types of electrical phenomena in the atmosphere
 
A sprite seen from the International Space Station (top right, faint red above the lightning).
 
ISS sprite image above; zoomed in
 
Another shot from the first color clip of the sprite.

Sprites have been observed over North America,[9] Central America, South America,[10] Europe,[11] Central Africa (Zaire), Australia, the Sea of Japan and Asia and are believed to occur during most large thunderstorm systems.

Rodger (1999) categorized three types of sprites based on their visual appearance.[1]

  • Jellyfish sprite – very large, up to 50 by 50 km (31 by 31 mi).
  • Column sprite (C-sprite) – large scale electrical discharges above the earth that are still not totally understood.
  • Carrot sprite – a column sprite with long tendrils.

Sprites are colored reddish-orange[5] in their upper regions, with bluish hanging tendrils below, and can be preceded by a reddish halo. They last longer than normal lower stratospheric discharges, which last typically a few milliseconds, and are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between the thundercloud and the ground,[12] although sprites generated by negative ground flashes have also been observed.[13] They often occur in clusters of two or more, and typically span the altitude range 50 to 90 kilometres (31 to 56 mi), with what appear to be tendrils hanging below, and branches reaching above.[5]

Optical imaging using a 10,000 frame-per-second high speed camera showed that sprites are actually clusters of small, decameter-sized [confusing?](10–100 m or 33–328 ft) balls of ionization that are launched at an altitude of about 80 km (50 mi) and then move downward at speeds of up to ten percent the speed of light, followed a few milliseconds later by a separate set of upward moving balls of ionization.[14] Sprites may be horizontally displaced by up to 50 km (31 mi) from the location of the underlying lightning strike, with a time delay following the lightning that is typically a few milliseconds, but on rare occasions may be up to 100 milliseconds.

This footage from the ISS shows a red sprite over East Asia immediately before 0:07, directly above the large lightning flash towards the upper right of the frame.

In order to film sprites from Earth, special conditions must be present: 150–500 km (93–311 mi) of clear view to a powerful thunderstorm with positive lightning between cloud and ground, red-sensitive recording equipment, and a black unlit sky.[15]

Sprite halo

Sprites are sometimes preceded, by about 1 millisecond, by a sprite halo, a pancake-shaped region of weak, transient optical emissions approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) across and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) thick. The halo is centered at about 70 kilometres (43 mi) altitude above the initiating lightning strike. These halos are thought to be produced by the same physical process that produces sprites, but for which the ionization is too weak to cross the threshold required for streamer formation. They are sometimes mistaken for ELVES, due to their visual similarity and short duration.[16][17][18]

Research carried out at Stanford University in 2000 indicates that, unlike sprites with bright vertical columnar structure, occurrence of sprite halos is not unusual in association with normal (negative) lightning discharges.[18] Research in 2004 by scientists from Tohoku University found that very low frequency emissions occur at the same time as the sprite, indicating that a discharge within the cloud may generate the sprites.[19]

Related aircraft damage

Sprites have been blamed for otherwise unexplained accidents involving high altitude vehicular operations above thunderstorms. One example of this is the malfunction of a NASA stratospheric balloon launched on June 6, 1989, from Palestine, Texas. The balloon suffered an uncommanded payload release while flying at 120,000 feet (37,000 m) over a thunderstorm near Graham, Texas. Months after the accident, an investigation concluded that a "bolt of lightning" traveling upward from the clouds provoked the incident.[20] The attribution of the accident to a sprite was made retroactively, since this term was not coined until late 1993.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Rodger, C. J. (1999). "Red sprites, upward lightning, and VLF perturbations". Reviews of Geophysics. 37 (3): 317–336. doi:10.1029/2001JA000283.
  2. ^ "NASA - Heliophysics Nugget: Seeing Sprites".
  3. ^ Toynbee, Henry (14 January 1886). "Meteorological phenomena (letter)". Nature. 33 (846): 245. doi:10.1038/033245d0. S2CID 4128139.
  4. ^ Franz, R.C.; Nemzek, R.J.; Winckler, J.R. (1990). "Television Image of a Large Upward Electrical Discharge Above a Thunderstorm System". Science. 249 (4964): 48–51. Bibcode:1990Sci...249...48F. doi:10.1126/science.249.4964.48. PMID 17787625. S2CID 9343018.
  5. ^ a b c Sentman, D.D.; Wescott, E. M.; Osborne, D. L.; Hampton, D. L.; Heavner, M. J. (1995). "Preliminary results from the Sprites94 aircraft campaign: 1. Red Sprites". Geophys. Res. Lett. 22 (10): 1205–1208. Bibcode:1995GeoRL..22.1205S. doi:10.1029/95GL00583.
  6. ^ "Sprite Lightning at 100,000 Frames Per Second". APOD.NASA.gov. NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day blog). Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Rare, Colorful Lightning Sprites Dance Over Hurricane Matthew". National Geographic. October 3, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  8. ^ "Hurricane Matthew and the Day/Night Band". Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. University of Wisconsin–Madison. October 7, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  9. ^ Kathy Berry (1994). Spectacular Color Flashes Recorded Above Electrical Storms. NASA. Retrieved on 2009-02-18.
  10. ^ Don Savage and Kathy Berry (1995). Sprites Confirmed Over Storms Outside U.S. For First Time. NASA. Retrieved on 2009-02-18.
  11. ^ . Archived from the original on 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2013-08-21.
  12. ^ Boccippio, D. J.; Williams, ER; Heckman, SJ; Lyons, WA; Baker, IT; Boldi, R (August 1995). "Sprites, ELF Transients, and Positive Ground Strokes". Science. 269 (5227): 1088–1091. Bibcode:1995Sci...269.1088B. doi:10.1126/science.269.5227.1088. PMID 17755531. S2CID 8840716.
  13. ^ Lu, Gaopeng; Cummer, Steven A; Blakeslee, Richard J; Weiss, Stephanie; Beasley, William H (2012). "Lightning morphology and impulse charge moment change of high peak current negative strokes". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 117 (D4): n/a. Bibcode:2012JGRD..117.4212L. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.308.9842. doi:10.1029/2011JD016890.
  14. ^ Stenbaek-Nielsen, H. C.; McHarg, M.G.; Kanmae, T.; Sentman, D.D. (June 6, 2007). "Observed emission rates in sprite streamer heads". Geophys. Res. Lett. 34 (11): L11105. Bibcode:2007GeoRL..3411105S. doi:10.1029/2007GL029881. L11105.
  15. ^ Grønne, Jesper. "Første danske 'red sprites' fanget fra Silkeborg" August 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Danish Meteorological Institute, 20 August 2012. Retrieved: 20 August 2012.
  16. ^ Rina Miyasato, Hiroshi Fukunishi, Yukihiro Takahashi, Michael J. Taylor, Hans. C. Stenbaek-Nielsen (2002). Academic Society Home Village. Retrieved on 2009-02-18.[dead link]
  17. ^ Christopher Barrington Leigh (2000). Sprite halos. 2008-09-17 at the Wayback Machine Stanford University. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  18. ^ a b Barrington-Leigh, C. P., U. S. Inan, and M. Stanley, "Identification of Sprites and Elves with Intensified Video and Broadband Array Photometry", J. Geophys. Res. 106, No. 2, February, 2001.
  19. ^ Ohkubo, A.; Fukunishi, H.; Takahashi, Y.; Adachi, T. (2005). "VLF/ELF sferic evidence for in-cloud discharge activity producing sprites". Geophysical Research Letters. 32 (4): L04812. Bibcode:2005GeoRL..32.4812O. doi:10.1029/2004GL021943. S2CID 53059204.
  20. ^ STRATOCAT (2009). "Data of the stratospheric balloon launched on 6/5/1989 from Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, Texas, US for Molecules observation made fluorescent with a Laser". Retrieved 2009-02-18.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sprites (lightning).
  • "Red Sprites & Blue Jets" – a digital capture of the VHS video distributed in 1994 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks that popularized the terms
  • "Red Sprites and Blue Jets". Archived from the original on 2002-09-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20. – webpage by University of Alaska Fairbanks
  • Ground and Balloon-Borne Observations of Sprites and Jets
  • Darwin Sprites '97 Space Physics Group, University of Otago
  • Sprites in Europe: European contributors blog
  • Kanmae, T.; Stenbaek-Nielsen, H.C.; McHarg, M.G.; Haaland, R.K. (2010). "Observation of blue sprite spectra at 10,000 fps". Geophys. Res. Lett. 37 (13): L13808. Bibcode:2010GeoRL..3713808K. doi:10.1029/2010GL043739.
  • . Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2012-07-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  • Short professional bio of Dr 'Geoff' McHarg
  • Photography website Petapixel posted a link to a very rare and very clear photograph of a sprite taken by photographer Mike Hollingshead. Article at Photographer Captures Rare Photograph of a Sprite with an Aurora
  • At the Edge of Space – a NOVA program that examines the phenomenon of Sprites
  • Red Sprites Over Adriatic Sea Seen from the Czech Republic (14 January 2019)

December 31, 2022
sprite, lightning, sprites, sprites, large, scale, electric, discharges, that, occur, high, above, thunderstorm, clouds, cumulonimbus, giving, rise, varied, range, visual, shapes, flickering, night, they, usually, triggered, discharges, positive, lightning, be. Sprites or red sprites are large scale electric discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds or cumulonimbus giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky They are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground First color image of a sprite taken from an aircraft A sprite over Laos as seen from the ISS Sprites appear as luminous red orange flashes They often occur in clusters above the troposphere at an altitude range of 50 90 km 31 56 mi Sporadic visual reports of sprites go back at least to 1886 1 but they were first photographed on July 4 1989 2 by scientists from the University of Minnesota and have subsequently been captured in video recordings many thousands of times Sprites are sometimes inaccurately called upper atmospheric lightning However sprites are cold plasma phenomena that lack the hot channel temperatures of tropospheric lightning so they are more akin to fluorescent tube discharges than to lightning discharges Sprites are associated with various other upper atmospheric optical phenomena including blue jets and ELVES 1 Contents 1 History 2 Characteristics 3 Sprite halo 4 Related aircraft damage 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory EditThe earliest known report of transient optical phenomena above thunderclouds is from Johann Georg Estor in 1730 Another early report is by Toynbee and Mackenzie in 1886 3 Nobel laureate C T R Wilson had suggested in 1925 on theoretical grounds that electrical breakdown could occur in the upper atmosphere and in 1956 he witnessed what possibly could have been a sprite They were first documented photographically on July 6 1989 when scientists from the University of Minnesota using a low light video camera accidentally captured the first image of what would subsequently become known as a sprite 4 Several years after their discovery they were named sprites air spirits after their elusive nature 5 Since the 1989 video capture sprites have been imaged from the ground from aircraft and from space and have become the subject of intensive investigations A featured high speed video that was captured by Thomas Ashcraft Jacob L Harley Matthew G McHarg and Hans Nielsen in 2019 at about 100 000 frames per second is fast enough to provide better detailing of how sprites develop However according to NASA s APOD blog despite being recorded in photographs and videos for the more than 30 years the root cause of sprite lightning remains unknown apart from a general association with positive cloud to ground lightning NASA also notes that not all storms exhibit sprite lightning 6 In 2016 sprites were observed during Hurricane Matthew s passage through the Caribbean 7 The role of sprites in the tropical cyclones is presently unknown 8 Characteristics Edit Different types of electrical phenomena in the atmosphere A sprite seen from the International Space Station top right faint red above the lightning ISS sprite image above zoomed in Another shot from the first color clip of the sprite Sprites have been observed over North America 9 Central America South America 10 Europe 11 Central Africa Zaire Australia the Sea of Japan and Asia and are believed to occur during most large thunderstorm systems Rodger 1999 categorized three types of sprites based on their visual appearance 1 Jellyfish sprite very large up to 50 by 50 km 31 by 31 mi Column sprite C sprite large scale electrical discharges above the earth that are still not totally understood Carrot sprite a column sprite with long tendrils Sprites are colored reddish orange 5 in their upper regions with bluish hanging tendrils below and can be preceded by a reddish halo They last longer than normal lower stratospheric discharges which last typically a few milliseconds and are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between the thundercloud and the ground 12 although sprites generated by negative ground flashes have also been observed 13 They often occur in clusters of two or more and typically span the altitude range 50 to 90 kilometres 31 to 56 mi with what appear to be tendrils hanging below and branches reaching above 5 Optical imaging using a 10 000 frame per second high speed camera showed that sprites are actually clusters of small decameter sized confusing 10 100 m or 33 328 ft balls of ionization that are launched at an altitude of about 80 km 50 mi and then move downward at speeds of up to ten percent the speed of light followed a few milliseconds later by a separate set of upward moving balls of ionization 14 Sprites may be horizontally displaced by up to 50 km 31 mi from the location of the underlying lightning strike with a time delay following the lightning that is typically a few milliseconds but on rare occasions may be up to 100 milliseconds source source source source source source source source source source This footage from the ISS shows a red sprite over East Asia immediately before 0 07 directly above the large lightning flash towards the upper right of the frame In order to film sprites from Earth special conditions must be present 150 500 km 93 311 mi of clear view to a powerful thunderstorm with positive lightning between cloud and ground red sensitive recording equipment and a black unlit sky 15 Sprite halo EditSprites are sometimes preceded by about 1 millisecond by a sprite halo a pancake shaped region of weak transient optical emissions approximately 50 kilometres 31 mi across and 10 kilometres 6 2 mi thick The halo is centered at about 70 kilometres 43 mi altitude above the initiating lightning strike These halos are thought to be produced by the same physical process that produces sprites but for which the ionization is too weak to cross the threshold required for streamer formation They are sometimes mistaken for ELVES due to their visual similarity and short duration 16 17 18 Research carried out at Stanford University in 2000 indicates that unlike sprites with bright vertical columnar structure occurrence of sprite halos is not unusual in association with normal negative lightning discharges 18 Research in 2004 by scientists from Tohoku University found that very low frequency emissions occur at the same time as the sprite indicating that a discharge within the cloud may generate the sprites 19 Related aircraft damage EditSprites have been blamed for otherwise unexplained accidents involving high altitude vehicular operations above thunderstorms One example of this is the malfunction of a NASA stratospheric balloon launched on June 6 1989 from Palestine Texas The balloon suffered an uncommanded payload release while flying at 120 000 feet 37 000 m over a thunderstorm near Graham Texas Months after the accident an investigation concluded that a bolt of lightning traveling upward from the clouds provoked the incident 20 The attribution of the accident to a sprite was made retroactively since this term was not coined until late 1993 See also EditUpper atmospheric lightning includes Blue Jets Aurora astronomy Catatumbo lightning Cosmic ray visual phenomenaReferences Edit a b c Rodger C J 1999 Red sprites upward lightning and VLF perturbations Reviews of Geophysics 37 3 317 336 doi 10 1029 2001JA000283 NASA Heliophysics Nugget Seeing Sprites Toynbee Henry 14 January 1886 Meteorological phenomena letter Nature 33 846 245 doi 10 1038 033245d0 S2CID 4128139 Franz R C Nemzek R J Winckler J R 1990 Television Image of a Large Upward Electrical Discharge Above a Thunderstorm System Science 249 4964 48 51 Bibcode 1990Sci 249 48F doi 10 1126 science 249 4964 48 PMID 17787625 S2CID 9343018 a b c Sentman D D Wescott E M Osborne D L Hampton D L Heavner M J 1995 Preliminary results from the Sprites94 aircraft campaign 1 Red Sprites Geophys Res Lett 22 10 1205 1208 Bibcode 1995GeoRL 22 1205S doi 10 1029 95GL00583 Sprite Lightning at 100 000 Frames Per Second APOD NASA gov NASA s APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day blog Retrieved 19 July 2022 Rare Colorful Lightning Sprites Dance Over Hurricane Matthew National Geographic October 3 2016 Retrieved October 3 2016 Hurricane Matthew and the Day Night Band Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies University of Wisconsin Madison October 7 2016 Retrieved November 3 2016 Kathy Berry 1994 Spectacular Color Flashes Recorded Above Electrical Storms NASA Retrieved on 2009 02 18 Don Savage and Kathy Berry 1995 Sprites Confirmed Over Storms Outside U S For First Time NASA Retrieved on 2009 02 18 Rare Atmospheric Phenomenon Observed from Armagh Archived from the original on 2013 09 05 Retrieved 2013 08 21 Boccippio D J Williams ER Heckman SJ Lyons WA Baker IT Boldi R August 1995 Sprites ELF Transients and Positive Ground Strokes Science 269 5227 1088 1091 Bibcode 1995Sci 269 1088B doi 10 1126 science 269 5227 1088 PMID 17755531 S2CID 8840716 Lu Gaopeng Cummer Steven A Blakeslee Richard J Weiss Stephanie Beasley William H 2012 Lightning morphology and impulse charge moment change of high peak current negative strokes Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 117 D4 n a Bibcode 2012JGRD 117 4212L CiteSeerX 10 1 1 308 9842 doi 10 1029 2011JD016890 Stenbaek Nielsen H C McHarg M G Kanmae T Sentman D D June 6 2007 Observed emission rates in sprite streamer heads Geophys Res Lett 34 11 L11105 Bibcode 2007GeoRL 3411105S doi 10 1029 2007GL029881 L11105 Gronne Jesper Forste danske red sprites fanget fra Silkeborg Archived August 22 2012 at the Wayback Machine Danish Meteorological Institute 20 August 2012 Retrieved 20 August 2012 Rina Miyasato Hiroshi Fukunishi Yukihiro Takahashi Michael J Taylor Hans C Stenbaek Nielsen 2002 Characteristics of Lightning induced Sprite Halos and Their Generation Mechanisms Academic Society Home Village Retrieved on 2009 02 18 dead link Christopher Barrington Leigh 2000 Sprite halos Archived 2008 09 17 at the Wayback Machine Stanford University Retrieved on 2008 02 18 a b Barrington Leigh C P U S Inan and M Stanley Identification of Sprites and Elves with Intensified Video and Broadband Array Photometry J Geophys Res 106 No 2 February 2001 Ohkubo A Fukunishi H Takahashi Y Adachi T 2005 VLF ELF sferic evidence for in cloud discharge activity producing sprites Geophysical Research Letters 32 4 L04812 Bibcode 2005GeoRL 32 4812O doi 10 1029 2004GL021943 S2CID 53059204 STRATOCAT 2009 Data of the stratospheric balloon launched on 6 5 1989 from Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility Palestine Texas US for Molecules observation made fluorescent with a Laser Retrieved 2009 02 18 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sprites lightning Red Sprites amp Blue Jets a digital capture of the VHS video distributed in 1994 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks that popularized the terms Red Sprites and Blue Jets Archived from the original on 2002 09 14 Retrieved 2012 08 20 webpage by University of Alaska Fairbanks Ground and Balloon Borne Observations of Sprites and Jets Darwin Sprites 97 Space Physics Group University of Otago Sprites jets and TLE pictures and articles Sprites in Europe European contributors blog Kanmae T Stenbaek Nielsen H C McHarg M G Haaland R K 2010 Observation of blue sprite spectra at 10 000 fps Geophys Res Lett 37 13 L13808 Bibcode 2010GeoRL 3713808K doi 10 1029 2010GL043739 Mysterious Sprite Photographed by ISS Astronaut Big Pic Archived from the original on 2012 07 14 Retrieved 2012 07 13 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Short professional bio of Dr Geoff McHarg Photography website Petapixel posted a link to a very rare and very clear photograph of a sprite taken by photographer Mike Hollingshead Article at Photographer Captures Rare Photograph of a Sprite with an Aurora At the Edge of Space a NOVA program that examines the phenomenon of Sprites Red Sprites Over Adriatic Sea Seen from the Czech Republic 14 January 2019 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sprite lightning amp oldid 1128680303, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.