Bizzare & Odd

An abnormal phenomenon on Earth captured from space: NASA and ESA have never seen such lightning

The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory has recorded five blue jets , an anomalous type of lightning that strikes from the top of a thundercloud into the stratosphere. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature.

On January 20, a video filmed from the International Space Station was posted on the channel of the European Space Agency, which puzzled all academics who study the atmosphere and build theories about how everything works there:

The 10 microsecond jets were sighted on February 26, 2019, near Nauru Island in the Pacific Ocean. One of the lightning flashes produced a jet that reached the stratopause – the boundary between the stratosphere and the ionosphere at an altitude of about 50 to 55 kilometers. In addition to the jets, “elves” were recorded, which are expanding rings of optical and ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere, lasting no more than a millisecond.

Electrical phenomena in the upper atmosphere are poorly understood and attract a lot of attention from physicists from around the world. They are short-lived and vary greatly with altitude. 

Related Post

Blue jets occur during electrical breakdown between the positively charged top of a thundercloud and the negatively charged air layer above it. As a result, a leader is formed – a conducting channel of ionized air, through which the discharge propagates. However, in this case, the radiation from the leader was weak, which indicates that the leader itself was short compared to the conductive channels of conventional lightning.

The blue jets belong to streamers – branched filaments of electrical discharges, similar to those generated by Tesla coils. In addition, blue jets are more likely to occur as a phenomenon than previously thought.

Some of the most mysterious are the “elves”. Their name comes from the abbreviation ELVES , which stands for “Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources.”. These phenomena reach four hundred kilometers in diameter and occur at an altitude of about one hundred kilometers. The list of optical phenomena associated with electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere does not end there. There are also TROLL , Pixie , Ghost, and Gnome , but their nature is even less understood. 

There is nothing like this, that is, such strange huge lightning has never been observed before. Something is happening in the Earth’s atmosphere, and it started quite recently. How it will end and what will result in – we do not know, since people living today have no such experience.

Recent Posts

“Reality doesn’t exist!”: Why the hacker who first hacked the iPhone believes we’re in a simulation

Despite countless attempts and extensive research efforts, humanity is still far from fully comprehending the…

10 hours ago

Supervolcano stirs: Is an Apocalypse on the horizon? The sleeping giant that could threaten humanity

Without warning, an ominous black cloud surged over the long-silent volcano. The sky turned an…

3 days ago

Rising space threat: Asteroid 2024 YR4 poses greater collision risk with Earth

Imagine this: the world holds its breath as a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic drama unfolds. A newly…

4 days ago

Antimicrobial resistance: The unseen threat to global health – what you need to know

Scientists around the world are developing revolutionary mRNA-based drugs. However, we're facing an even greater…

5 days ago

The harsh truth behind the Fermi Paradox: Professor Amri Wandel’s provocative hypothesis

For over half a century, humanity has gazed into the cosmos, yearning to find evidence…

6 days ago

AI-driven Supercomputer predicts imminent global collapse – Countdown to 2040 begins

In a world where technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, artificial intelligence has emerged…

1 week ago