Astronaut Thomas Pesquet on board the International Space Station (ISS) noticed an unusual phenomenon over the globe. It is rare and difficult to observe, which is why he decided to show it in the photo.
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The photo that an astronaut from the European Space Agency showed on October 7 shows a fragment of the globe at night. At the top, above Europe, you can see a bright blue light, and above it – red. As Thomas Pesquet pointed out, these phenomena “just a few decades ago were anecdotally observed by pilots, and scientists were not sure if they really existed.”
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Because light is rare, it is very difficult to catch and almost impossible to see from Earth. Only a few can see them – astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and those who soar above the storms.
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The phenomenon that the astronaut noticed was transient luminous event (TLE), which can be translated as a transient light event. The “blue jet” observed by Pesquet is caused by a lightning strike. If lightning travels through the top layer of negatively charged storm clouds and has previously passed through the layer of positively charged clouds, the lightning may strike upwards. This creates a blue glow as the nitrogen molecules ignite.
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The red light visible above the blue one is called a sprite. It is an electrical discharge in the atmosphere that occurs during a thunderstorm. It is similar to lightning, but there is a fundamental difference. Lightning visible from Earth occurs at or below clouds, and imps appear high above clouds in the ionosphere.
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A phenomenon observed by an astronaut from the ISSThomas Pesquet / NASA / ESA
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“The space station is a great place to observe these types of phenomena because it passes over the equator where there are more storms,” emphasized Pesquet.
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photo-source">Main photo source: Thomas Pesquet / NASA / ESA
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