What causes sprite lightning?
Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.
Are sprites related to lightning?
Sprites are often triggered by a strong, positive bolt of ordinary lightning near the ground. They’re thought to be a balancing mechanism that the atmosphere uses to dispense charges vertically.
Can you see sprites?
If you see a thunderstorm in the distance late at night, look at the sky above the clouds and watch closely. You might just glimpse a sprite. Sprites are a type of transient luminous event, like lightning, but fainter, faster and significantly larger, Jessica Leigh Hester explains for Atlas Obscura.
What are sprites in the sky?
Sprites are rapid flashes of red light that occur high up in the mesosphere, over 50 kilometres above the ground. Similar to how lightning is an electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground, sprites are electrical discharges between the top of a thunderstorm and the upper atmosphere.
What do sprites look like?
A sprite is a supernatural entity in European mythology. They are often depicted as fairy-like creatures or as an ethereal entity. The word sprite is derived from the Latin spiritus (“spirit”), via the French esprit. Variations on the term include spright and the Celtic spriggan.
Why do sprites happen?
Sprites or red sprites are large-scale electric discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.
How long do lightning sprites last?
about 5ms to 300ms
Sprites are optical phenomena that occur above active thunderstorms. Sprites are associated with positive cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning discharge, and they last from about 5ms to 300ms(Rodger, 1999).
Do sprites fly?
A water sprite (also called a water fairy or water faery) is a general term for an elemental spirit associated with water, according to alchemist Paracelsus. Water sprites are said to be able to breathe water or air and sometimes can fly.
Are sprites good or evil?
Sprites were flighty and found most other creatures too serious. However, they also despised evil. Because of their austerity and zealous attitude against evil, sprites were considered overly sullen and harsh by other fey. Unlike pixies, they did not care to engage in fun activities or adorn themselves.
What is the rarest color of lightning?
Green lightning is a rare phenomenon that can be seen during a thunderstorm. Someone who has seen green lightning is extremely lucky as green lightning strikes are rarely seen. It is so rare that the only photograph of a green lightning strike is one from when the Chaiten volcano in Chile erupted.
Can lightning black?
Dark lightning appears sometimes to compete with normal lightning as a way for thunderstorms to vent the electrical energy that gets pent up inside their roiling interiors, Dwyer says. Unlike with regular lightning, though, people struck by dark lightning, most likely while flying in an airplane, would not get hurt.