NASA Lightning Sprites

In the 80's pilots thought they were UFO's, and still today little is known about them. Sprites are a type of unusual lightning that appears sometimes over the tops of clouds in a very large short lived red mushroom shape. Here is a resource reel I put together at NASA that shows a collection of footage of them.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• lightning
• ball
• sprites
• UFO

[OOFUJISAN]

OMFG!!!!

They're extremely fast! Normal eye can't see it most of times.

[44R0N]

Yeah, just a fraction of a second.

Imagine being a pilot in the 1980's, back before we actually knew they existed, and seeing one of these.

[verticalsmurf]

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I think sprites are like the kickback of a previous lightning strike, made visible by another lightning strike.

[shockermethod]

this stuff is so awesome. i love learning more and more about weather

[Deady4u]

@44R0N Yeah it would look like a whole country is being bombarded

[greatwhitenorth112]

@verticalsmurf more energy as a result of energy is wrong sprits and lighting are just at different altitudes

[Mallgenttt]

Hail Comsic Jellyfish. Nah just kidding, sprites are the weirdest shit.

[candyfloss362]

there is nothing more owe inspiring then nature

[AntiProtonBoy]

I love electrons. They put money in my account, they light up my house, keep my food edible, paint pictures on my screen and put on a spectacular light show.

[Zathren]

Watch the discovery channal, they talked about these. Its like the cause the thender storms, they aren't after efects, they are much more powerful then that. If I remeber correctly, they said one of those could power the west coast for I think ten years, remember, just guessing

[rax7]

lol looks like there was a war down there.

[BloodReaperz911]

umm i think thats how lighting rods are formed,- threw static imulation in the isomosphere ,whenthe mosturer in the air between the clouds impact that the isomosphe actualy "pulls, or craves the static charge" and "translates that chemistry " into a lightning rod. and which depending on the amount of charge created, and the "negative pull from the earth" intill impact to the earth, the heat increases within the lighting rod reaching a 3000'c on contact. causing a repeat in action.???

[Bobman4671]

Cosmic Jellyfish