APOD: Red Sprite Lightning over the Czech... (2022 Sep 12)

[APOD Robot]

Red Sprite Lightning over the Czech Republic

Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 35 years ago: red sprites. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image was taken late last month from the Jeseniky Mountains in northern Moravia in the Czech Republic. The distance to the red sprites is about 200 kilometers. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

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[RocketRon]

Amazing photo !
How long was the exposure ?

[david@gordon.fm]

What's the structure that appears to be on fire in the lower RH corner?

[Iksarfighter]

30 sec exposure ? As the stars moved a bit.

[VictorBorun]

30 sec exposure ? As the stars moved a bit.

I think the stars were smeared by camera vibration during 100 ms exposure and the sprites lasted 1 ms and did not smear so much.
The sprites are tracks of cold plasma balls that go up at 10% speed of light and therefore those balls do get smeared in a 100 ms exposure:
it takes (90 km - 50 km)/(30 km/ms) = 1.3 ms for a ball to travel its track

It seems very strange to me that a cold plasma ball going up should fork 3 ways to make a trident.

By the way Rorik of Dorestad, the Danish prince to start the Rurikid dynasty, used both Thor's hammer and trident insignia (that trident survives at the modern Ukranian flag). Must been a red sprite trident, to go together with Thor



Update. Sorry, Rorik used bident; the Rurikid made it into a trident later, after Olga (Helga) added Freya's hawk-flying cloak and it transformed to a middle prong.

[heehaw]

Absolutely REMARKABLE photo!

[JohnD]

10% light speed? Wow! A quick Google finds that to be 67 MILLION mph. They are ionised gas, in the upper atmosphere, so not very dense. Can anyone estimate their mass? Because to accelerate from zero to that, even for a millisecond, must use a heck of a lot of energy, even for a packet of thin gas!
John

[mtbdudex]

Epic capture, from his facebook page
"Selection of the best elves from the night of 26.8.2022 over the north of Bohemia. Photographed by the Golden Mountains. Sony A7S modified + 135GM, ISO 2500, F/2, 3.2s"

[VictorBorun]

10% light speed? Wow! A quick Google finds that to be 67 MILLION mph. They are ionised gas, in the upper atmosphere, so not very dense. Can anyone estimate their mass? Because to accelerate from zero to that, even for a millisecond, must use a heck of a lot of energy, even for a packet of thin gas!
John

the air does not move; some free electrons move, but not all the way: they shift here and there. It's the cold plasma red fluorescence zone that is moving.
Like waving a laser beam, this non-material movement is massless

[VictorBorun]

Epic capture, from his facebook page
"Selection of the best elves from the night of 26.8.2022 over the north of Bohemia. Photographed by the Golden Mountains. Sony A7S modified + 135GM, ISO 2500, F/2, 3.2s"

3 seconds exposure? My guess was wrong. Still, that is too short to smear stars by daily rotation

[orin stepanek]

Red sprites; like fireworks in the Czech Republic skys!

beautiful; almost looks like a sifi scene!

[Chris Peterson]

Epic capture, from his facebook page
"Selection of the best elves from the night of 26.8.2022 over the north of Bohemia. Photographed by the Golden Mountains. Sony A7S modified + 135GM, ISO 2500, F/2, 3.2s"

3 seconds exposure? My guess was wrong. Still, that is too short to smear stars by daily rotation

"Selection".

This is a stack of individual 3-second images, taken over an unspecified period. So we'd certainly expect to see star trails.

[JohnD]

10% light speed? Wow! A quick Google finds that to be 67 MILLION mph. They are ionised gas, in the upper atmosphere, so not very dense. Can anyone estimate their mass? Because to accelerate from zero to that, even for a millisecond, must use a heck of a lot of energy, even for a packet of thin gas!
John

the air does not move; some free electrons move, but not all the way: they shift here and there. It's the cold plasma red fluorescence zone that is moving.
Like waving a laser beam, this non-material movement is massless

Thank you, Victor! So, this is more like a charge moving through the atmosphere? Like lightning, but about 250 times FASTER?

[Jim Armstrong]

It was not too long ago that photographs of this wonderful phenomenon were nearly nonexistent.
Look at them now, with every expectation of more!

[Sa Ji Tario]

What's the structure that appears to be on fire in the lower RH corner?

[Sa Ji Tario]

What's the structure that appears to be on fire in the lower RH corner?

communications tower

[DonB312]

It was not too long ago that photographs of this wonderful phenomenon were nearly nonexistent.
Look at them now, with every expectation of more!

I was thinking exactly this too. Especially as I was clicking the many links in today's APOD.

I love that technology is always improving while at the same time becoming in reach of more and more people; both amateur and professional. I think we live in a wonderful time for learning about our universe.

- Don