Have you ever seen a flash of red light above a thunderstorm? Chances are you have not, but if you have, you weren’t seeing things!
According to http://sky-fire.tv, scientists have observed this phenomenon since 1886, but it was not until 1989 that it was actually discovered. John R. Winckler, a physics professor for the University of Minnesota, and two of his graduate students, were testing a camera for a research rocket. They captured “two giant columns of light towering high above distant thunderstorms.” This phenomenon is now called a sprite, named after the mythical creature since scientists didn’t quite understand what caused this strange event at the time.
Sprites normally start about 45 miles high, can extend as high as 60 miles and may be as low as 15 miles. They are normally red, but sometimes they can be blue! A single sprite can be as tall as 45 miles and as wide as 10 miles. Sometimes there may even be a group of sprites.
According to the American Meteorological Society glossary, a sprite only last a few milliseconds, so this is an event you could miss with the blink of an eye! Sprites aren’t the only phenomenon that occur above a thunderstorm, there are also blue jets, pixies, elves, trolls and gnomes!
Sources:
http://www.ametsoc.org
http://sky-fire.tv
http://ufologie.net/htm/sylphes.htm
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