MADRID, 13 (EUROPA PRESS)
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers has captured a stunning image of a 'giant jet' from the International Space Station.
Observed on July 5, the space agency has now explained in a statement that it was an unusual and spectacular form of a TLE (Transient Luminous Event).
Thunderstorm jets are a powerful type of electrical discharge that extends from the top of a thunderstorm into the upper atmosphere. They are often observed by chance, often by airline passengers or accidentally captured by ground-based cameras recording other phenomena.
This phenomenon occurs when turbulent conditions at thunderstorm tops allow lightning to escape from the storm and propagate into space. They create an electrical bridge between the cloud tops (approximately 20 km) and the upper atmosphere (approximately 100 km), depositing a significant amount of electrical charge.
IT WAS FIRST IDENTIFIED AS A 'SPRITE'
The July 5 image was initially identified as a sprite, but sprites are one of the most commonly observed types of TLEs: brief, colorful flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms in the mesosphere, about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface.
Unlike giant jets, which emerge directly from the tops of storm clouds, sprites form independently, much higher in the atmosphere, following powerful lightning strikes. They typically appear as a reddish glow with intricate shapes resembling jellyfish, columns, or carrots, and can extend tens of kilometers in diameter.
Sprites may also be accompanied or preceded by other TLEs, such as halos and ELVEs (Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency Disturbances due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources), making them part of a larger and visually spectacular array of high-altitude electrical activity.
