Explanation: Have you ever seen a gigantic jet? They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful. Gigantic jets are a newly discovered type of lightning discharge between some thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere high above them. Pictured above is one such jet caught by accident by a meteor camera in Oklahoma, USA. The gigantic jet, at the lower left, traversed perhaps 70 kilometers in just under one second. Clicking on the image will bring up a movie in many browsers, also visible here. Gigantic jets are much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar in appearance to another type cloud-to-ionosphere strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites. Although the mechanism and trigger that causes gigantic jets is a topic of research, it is clear that the jets reduce charge imbalance between different parts of Earth's atmosphere. A good way to look for gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but distant thunderstorm from a clear location.

<<  Avgust  >> Pn Vt Sr Cht Pt Sb Vs     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31     1995   1996   1997 1998   1999   2000 2001   2002   2003 2004   2005   2006 2007   2008   2009 2010   2011   2012 2013   2014   2015 2016   2017   2018 2019   2020   2021 2022   2023   2024

Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr'

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Oklahoma - molnii Publikacii so slovami: Oklahoma - molnii
Sm. takzhe: Molnii na Yupitere Sledy zvezd i molnii nad Pireneyami Krasnye spraity nad Cheshskoi respublikoi Krasnye spraity nad Andami Polyarnye siyaniya i molnii na Yupitere Molnii nad Kolorado Molniya sprait Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>