Red jellyfish sprites and green ghosts captured over Corsica

Spaceweather.com
Fri, 02 Oct 2020 02:59 UTC

© Christophe SUAREZ

Red jellyfish sprites and green ghosts taken on September 10, 2020 over Corsica.

Christophe Suarez of Genoa, Italy, wasn't trying to photograph sprites when he pointed his camera at a distant thunderstorm on Sept. 10th. But this magnificent specimen was too big to miss.

"I was shooting a thunderstorm across the Ligurian Sea almost 400 km away over the island of Corsica," says Suarez. "Suddenly this jellyfish sprite appeared!" Its red form stretched 100 km high, nearly touching the edge of space.

Note the slightly-green caps on top of the sprite. These are a newly discovered phenomenon called "Green Ghosts." When sprites intersect Earth's airglow layer 96-97 km high, they can excite oxygen atoms, producing an aurora-like glow.

Green Ghosts were discovered just one year ago by Hank Schyma, a Houston Texas-based storm chaser better known to his fans as Pecos Hank. Only a handful of Green Ghosts have ever been photographed, so this is an area of cutting edge research.

Comment: Recently discovered atmospheric electrical phenomenon 'Green Ghost' captured over West Texas

With the surge in sightings of red sprites in recent years (which are still considered 'rare' by some) it seems the electrical nature of our weather and changing atmosphere is becoming more apparent:

• Extremely bright 'jellyfish' sprites easily visible with naked-eye over Colorado
• Giant red sprites filmed above electric storm over Texas
• Changing atmosphere: Red sprites and a blue jet seen above Europe's stormy skies
• Strange skies: Red Sprites in Oklahoma, aurora Steve in Canada, iridescent clouds in Illinois and noctilucent clouds in Denmark
• Our changing atmosphere: Stunning iridescent cloud over Mexico, complex solar halo over Russia and a triple rainbow over Norway

For more, check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?