(Image Credit & Copyright: Li Xuanhua)

"Pictured here are gigantic jets shooting up from a thunderstorm last week toward the Himalayan Mountains in China and Bhutan. The composite image captured four long jets that occurred only minutes apart. Gigantic jets, documented only in this century, are a type of lightning discharge that occurs between some thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere high above them. They are an unusual type of lightning that is much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar to a cloud-to-above strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites. Although the mechanism and trigger that cause gigantic jets remains a topic of research, it is clear that the jets reduce charge imbalance between different parts of Earth's atmosphere. A good way to look for gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but distant thunderstorm from a clear location."

Transient Luminous Events. wanna tell me about them? And these EVLE things you mentioned?

OKAY SO

Transient Luminous Events, or TLEs, are a bunch of atmospheric phenomenon caused by lightning! They aren't true lightning, they're way too cold and is more like florescent lights.

So the way they formed is when an extremely strong positively charged lightning strikes, causing an imbalance of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere. Because the clouds have a different charge from the upper atmosphere, the particles move between the two layers, creating a TLE! So it's kind of like lightning but less extreme basically.

They occur in the upper atmosphere, from 20 to 100 kilometers above the ground I believe? They occur way above thunderstorms though. Plus they last anywhere from less than a millisecond to 2 seconds, so they are HARD to spot! Plus they tend to be quite faint... In fact, they were only discovered in 1989, although there were reports of them by pilots-

Anyways, onto different types. First off, red sprites!

The most commonly recorded TLE. The bigger ones tend to have blue at the bottom because of Nitrogen in the lower atmosphere exciting in the blue to ultraviolet wavelengths. Plus they may appear in clusters of "Dancing sprites!" Very cool tbh.

Oh and they may appear with a green afterglow on top, which are called Green Ghosts!

Next up, jets!

Basically a regular lightning strike triggering a secondary event. Very cool, there are three types: Blue starters, Blue Jets and Gigantic Jets.

And finally... ELVES

Short for "Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources" (What a mouthful!), ELVEs are my absolute favourite TLE. They could get up to 400 km wide, they occur over 100 km in the air and lasts for less than a MILLISECOND. They are so cool!!!!

Daena Key

Storm Inferno

Sketches

- Supercell, blue jets

- Rope tornadoes

Blue Jets

Scientists at Denmark’s National Space Institute were studying blue jets, an elusive phenomenon similar to lightning, but there was a lack of visuals to aid in their research. So, in 2015, European Space Agency Astronaut Andreas Mogensen, the first Dane to fly in space, was recruited to the wonderfully named experiment “Thor”. His mission to the International Spaces Station (ISS) lasted just 10 days, but in that time, he managed to record video of blue jets for the first time from space during a thunderstorm over India.

Blue jets, much like sprites (http://bit.ly/2kA4Sdu) are difficult to study. They’re a rapid discharge of electrical energy caused by the static charges that build up during thunderstorms, last only a fraction of a second, and can only be photographed from above the clouds. Blue jets are different from lightning in that the discharge is more focused, meaning nitrogen in the surrounding air is impacted by a bigger charge, resulting in a blue glow.

Pilots have talked discreetly amongst themselves about blue jets for decades, but were reluctant to admit they had seen them for fear of losing their license. Then, in 1989, scientists inadvertently recorded blue jets on video. Since then, blue jets, along with other transient luminous events (TLE) (basically, electrical-discharge phenomenon at altitudes above those of normal lightning), have been studied but with great difficulty given how challenging it is to even see them.

In order to get the best possible visual of blue jets, Thor was carried out from September 2 through 11 of 2015. Teams on the ground forecasted thunderstorm activity along the orbit of the ISS and provided optimal camera angles for recording any TLE, then uploaded that information to the ISS every 24 hours. Morgensen filmed the storms at 24 frames per second (among other carefully selected camera settings) and everyone waited and hoped that he’d be filming in the right place at the right time to catch a blue jet. He was. The blue jets Morgensen recorded were kilometers high; possibly 20 kilometers or more.

While Thor was a success, there’s still much to learn. Fortunately, more research into lightning and TLE from the ISS are planned.

RE

Elusive blue lightning filmed dancing above a thunderstorm

In Earth’s upper atmosphere, blue jets, red sprites, pixies, halos, trolls and elves streak toward space, rarely caught in the act by human eyes.

This mixed-bag of quasi-mythological terms are all names for transient luminous events, or, quite simply, forms of lightning that dance atop thunderstorm clouds. Airplane pilots have reported seeing them, but their elusive nature makes them hard to study. But ESA astronaut Andreas Morgensen, while aboard the International Space Station in September 2015, filmed hundreds of blue jets flashing over a thunderstorm that was pounding the Bay of Bengal, confirming a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon.

According to Morgensen and researchers at the Denmark National Space Institute, these observations are the first of their kind, and offer a rare glimpse of poorly understood atmospheric phenomena. His work, which was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, also proves that the ISS is a perfect lab for studying elves and pixies, and a planned follow-up mission should reveal even more.

Read more ~ Astronomy Magazine