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Did anyone know this existed? — Parallax Forums

Did anyone know this existed?

MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
edited 2016-08-25 14:24 in General Discussion
That's no meteor. While watching and photographing this year's Perseid Meteor Shower, something unexpected happened: a gigantic jet erupted from a nearby cloud. The whole thing was over in a flash -- it lasted less than a second -- but was fortunately captured by an already-recording digital camera. Gigantic jets are a rare form of lightning recognized formally only a few years ago. The featured high resolution color image, taken near the peak of Shikengkong mountain in China, may be the best image yet of this unusual phenomena. The same event appears to have been captured simultaneously by another photographer, further away. The gigantic jet appears to start somewhere in a nearby thundercloud and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research.
Image Credit & Copyright: Phebe Pan
533 x 800 - 257K

Comments

  • Which site are you getting this information from?

    spacelightning_strip.png

    I found the above photo here.
  • Hal AlbachHal Albach Posts: 747
    edited 2016-08-25 14:31
    I have often heard about "sprites" since their discovery, and all pictures to date have been of very thin, difficult to see sprites. This one is probably the most visible and prominent one I have seen a picture of, so far. Very impressive.
    Hmmm! Wonder what are the Chinese up to?
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-08-25 14:54
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    Which site are you getting this information from?



    That is from NASA's mobile site, that's why I didn't post a link.


    EDIT:
    Hal Albach wrote: »
    Hmmm! Wonder what are the Chinese up to?


    That is what they are up to, some crazy form of cloud writing.
  • That is what they are up to, some crazy form of cloud writing.

    And doing it quite well according to Duane's picture!

  • This has got to be a factor in the intensity of storms that have that characteristic.

    I couldn't live there, don't know how anyone can.
  • Baffling: There is no trails on any other object in the background other than this. It wasn't a long exposure because of the foreground movement, don't look like the moon, looks like a planet.
  • MikeDYur wrote: »
    Baffling: There is no trails on any other object in the background other than this. It wasn't a long exposure because of the foreground movement, don't look like the moon, looks like a planet.

    Remember what they were there to photograph?

    They likely caught a Perseid meteor.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    I wonder if the ionization trail from a meteor could cause that type of discharge under certain conditions.
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