Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 4:05 am Giant Jet from the International Space Station

Explanation: What's that on the horizon? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early last month, astronaut Matthew Dominick saw an unusual type of lightning just beyond the Earth's edge: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears on the left of the featured image in red and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 23 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. 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.

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AVAO wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 5:02 am

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 4:05 am Giant Jet from the International Space Station

Explanation: What's that on the horizon? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early last month, astronaut Matthew Dominick saw an unusual type of lightning just beyond the Earth's edge: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears on the left of the featured image in red and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 23 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. 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.

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TLEs: Electrical discharges above the clouds. Of sprites, blue jets, elves and trolls

Click to view full size image

source: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/tr ... osts-video

Click to view full size image

source:www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/ ... -43-45.pdf

Red Sprites and Blue Jets Explained - New Discovery!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGPQ5kzJ9Tg

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 8:55 am The APOD is nice, but I think it show us rather too much background and a too small-looking gigantic jet! Although the gigantic jet itself does look fantastic, like a neon-colored mushroom growing out of the cloud cover of the Earth.

I get that the green layer of the atmosphere is airglow. But why is the atmosphere beneath the green airglow-layer bronze-colored? Is it due to air pollution?

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:32 pm Be sure to click on the "top of the frame" link to see the close-up inset view of the jet from here https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankie57pr/53877835585/

Click to view full size image

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:39 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 8:55 am The APOD is nice, but I think it show us rather too much background and a too small-looking gigantic jet! Although the gigantic jet itself does look fantastic, like a neon-colored mushroom growing out of the cloud cover of the Earth.

To me that makes the gigantic jet look even more so, what with the entire atmosphere visible and the curvature of the Earth.

I get that the green layer of the atmosphere is airglow. But why is the atmosphere beneath the green airglow-layer bronze-colored? Is it due to air pollution?

That's the sodium layer.

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 3:28 am

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:39 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 8:55 am The APOD is nice, but I think it show us rather too much background and a too small-looking gigantic jet! Although the gigantic jet itself does look fantastic, like a neon-colored mushroom growing out of the cloud cover of the Earth.

To me that makes the gigantic jet look even more so, what with the entire atmosphere visible and the curvature of the Earth.

I get that the green layer of the atmosphere is airglow. But why is the atmosphere beneath the green airglow-layer bronze-colored? Is it due to air pollution?

That's the sodium layer.

You mean light pollution? Due to sodium lamps?

Click to view full size image

Ann

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:39 am

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 3:28 am

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:39 pm
To me that makes the gigantic jet look even more so, what with the entire atmosphere visible and the curvature of the Earth.



That's the sodium layer.

You mean light pollution? Due to sodium lamps?

Click to view full size image

Ann

No, a layer of sodium atoms at the top of the atmosphere which comes from meteors. It's what active adaptive optics systems on big telescopes shine their lasers on to create artificial stars. We see it in most images from space that show the atmosphere edge on like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_layer

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 12:05 pm So, the green arc is airglow, but what about the large amorphous green blob toward the bottom of the frame?