Lightning From Space

Across the atmosphere of earth lightning flashes about 50 times per second.

Lightning from space. A pair of photographs released by nasa earlier this week shows white lightning as seen by astronauts aboard the international space station. A strange type of lightning called a sprite that occurs above thunderstorms and extends to the edge of space was photographed by an astronaut aboard the space station on april 30th 2012. The esa released this video of lightning storms and lightning. Flashes above 38 degrees north were observed by otd only as the satellite flew to higher latitudes.

A sprite seen from the international space station top right faint red above the lightning. This discharge may produce a wide range of electromagnetic radiation from very hot plasma created by the rapid movement of electrons to brilliant flashes of. Nasa astronaut bob behnken who is currently aboard the international space station has shared a mesmerising view of lightning from above on social media leaving viewers amazed. Lightning storms from space february 9 2016 if you ve ever wondered what a lightning storm looks like from above now you know.

Nasa the energy goes through the air. Sprites or red sprites are large scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds or cumulonimbus giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions in the atmosphere or ground temporarily equalize themselves causing the instantaneous release of as much as one gigajoule of energy. That s 4 3 million times a day and roughly 1 5 billion times a year.

This is what lightning looks like from space. This lightning bolt of energy that is let out is called a leader stroke. Using a new instrument on the international space station iss scientists are hoping to observe and dissect at least a few of those lightning bolts every day. The map is based on data collected from 1998 2013 by the lightning imaging sensor lis on nasa s tropical rainfall measuring mission satellite and from 1995 2000 by the optical transient detector otd on the orbview 1 microlab satellite.