Red goblins, the impressive lights seen in some storms

A few days ago, numerous inhabitants of the corsica island They were amazed to see the appearance of red sparks in the Mediterranean Sea during a storm.

These chisporroteoswhich produce a beautiful and rare spectacle in the skies, are known as red sprites and are difficult to capture, since they appear and disappear in the atmosphere almost instantly.

Leprechauns -red sprites- above a storm in Corsica last night.
Shot from Eze (Alpes-Maritimes, 06)

Z6 & Sigma 40/1.4 @F/1.4 12800 isos. Video extraction.#StormHour @meteofrance @AlpesMaritimes #paca #thunderstorm #thunderstorms @KeraunosObs pic.twitter.com/KDqp1treQO

— Christophe Suarez (@suarezphoto) November 22, 2023

Los red goblins (‘red sprites’, in English) are phenomena transient luminous that occur in the upper layers of the atmosphere (iosphere) and move towards space. Are bursts of electricity They are difficult to observe with the naked eye from the surface due to their short duration – not in vain are they part of the so-called transient luminous events – and the fact that they occur at high altitudes.

Flashes of light

Red sprites manifest as flashes of red light that extend vertically from the tops of thunderstorms to altitudes between 50 and 90 kilometers high in the sky. Its shape often resembles a cone or a thin column. These phenomena are different from normal lightning and are due to electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere.

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The formation of these spectra is linked to the intense electric shocks in thunderstorms. They are believed to occur when a lightning discharge In the lower atmosphere it generates a strong electric field that interacts with the ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere. This can cause the ionization of molecules in the ionosphere, creating the flashes of red light characteristic of red sprites.

It is believed that these phenomena were first observed in the 1980s, although the first color image showing its red hue was taken in 1994 by the University of Alaska from a NASA device. The second image was taken by a cameraman, and since then, scientists have used special instruments, such as high-speed cameras and spectrometers, to further study the red sprites and better understand their formation mechanisms.