Out of the Pink Sky: Red Sprites, Blue Jets, and Elves

February 24, 2009

Red Sprites, Blue Jets, and Elves - Oh My!

I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to certain scientific things. For example, I'm fascinated by space, marine biology, and weather. Today, I saw an article in Yahoo about a new theory about natural phenomena that may be behind cases of UFO sightings. I didn't expect the explanation to be so interesting. The article described natural phenomena discovered, fairly recently, in 1989. Red sprites, blue jets, and elves are types of upper-atmosphere lightning that is unlike the lightning we see below the clouds. These lightning bolts are associated with ground lightning but can appear, above the clouds, many miles away from their corresponding ground bolt thus looking like unexplained bright lights to people on the ground. Generally, to see this activity, however, one must be above the clouds. Thus, their existence was long ago known to pilots. Because red sprites appear as columns, moving upward, they can appear like candles. I was particularly impressed with this quote: "The candles in the sprites are up to 15 miles high, with the cluster of candles 45 miles wide — it looks like a huge birthday celebration!" I'd love to see something like that! There's more info at Wikipedia.