Enormous Red Sprites Seen From Space

astroengine writes: A gorgeous photo, captured from the International Space Station on the night of Aug. 10, 2015, shows an orbital view of thunderstorms over the city lights of southern Mexico as a recumbent Orion rises over Earth's limb. But wait, there's more: along the right edge of the picture a cluster of bright red and purple streamers can be seen rising above a blue-white flash of lightning: it's an enormous red sprite caught on camera! First photographed in 1989, red sprites are very brief flashes of optical activity that are associated with powerful lightning. So-called because of their elusive nature, sprites typically appear as branching red tendrils reaching up above the region of an exceptionally strong lightning flash. These electrical discharges can extend as high as 55 miles (90 kilometers) into the atmosphere, with the brightest region usually around altitudes of 40–45 miles (65–75 km). Sprites don't last very long — 3–10 milliseconds at most — and so to catch one (technically here it's a cluster of them) on camera is a real feat... or, in this case, a great surprise!

Comments

blurry

[rubycodez]

shoulda stopped that station and set the parking brake instead of taking picture with it moving

The FSM is here

[bruce_the_loon]

Run for the hills, the FSM has arrived and is hammering the world with his angry, red noodly appendages.

Thought this title was a joke

[neminem]

Wondering if I'm the only one that was thinking it was some sort of prank, that somehow we could see, say, these guys from space?

Thin Atmosphere

[labnet]

Did you notice the awesome shot of our atmosphere in that photo, and how thin it looks.
Reminds of this visualisation.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes....

Hard to photograph

[Okian Warrior]

Due to their ephemeral nature, sprites are hard to capture on camera.

For comparison, here's one that appeared over Paris this summer.

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