Sprite
Photo Source: NASA

The night is dark, it looks like a coal sack with points of light shinning through, then all of a suddenly you see glowing lights jumping across you field of view. What was that you think? No it wasn't from another world or dimension, it was quite natural, but also quite mysterious. It was what is known as a Sprite. There are several definations for the word Sprite. The one that we are referring to here is "a large, dim, red flash that appears above active thunderstorms in conjunction with lighting." This kind of thing has frightened people from the beginning of time. One just has to look at some of the other definitions for the word to realize this fact. Other definitions include "a small or elusive supernatural being such as an elf or pixie", "a specter or ghost" and "a soul".

Can you imagine that in days past, it was believed that this phenomena of light was believed to have been caused by the souls of the dead? It must have been a very terrifying time to have lived in. Even the thoughts of Elves running around causing this is not too comforting. Thank goodness we have evolved to know that this is caused by ufos. Just kidding. When we learned that the Earth was really one big electrical generator we knew that all types of lightning and strange lights were possible.

Photo Left: Black and White Blue Jet Photo
Photo Middle: Black and White Red Sprite Photo
Photo Right: Sprite Height
Photos Source: NASA

Sprites are quite ghostly looking and seem to be very closely related to lightning. Did you ever notice how lightning flickers? This is caused by multiple lighting strikes in fast succession. Many people don't realize how hot lightning is. A lightning bolt can be six times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Lightning strikes about 125 times per minute, give or take 10 strikes. If you were to compute this, you would find that there are about three billion lighting strikes per year around the world. Gee, when you look at it this way, it seems like a miracle that more of us aren't struck by it. One good thing is that most people who are hit by lightning don't die. In America over 7,000 people were killed by lightning in the last 34 years. Some people are effected with keraunophobia, which is an irrational fear of lightning. I guess it is hard to get them to go out of the house.

Lightning Storm
Photo Source: NOAA

There is also something called Ball lightning. On rare occasions, usually during a thunder storm, glowing spheres of light are visible. Sometimes these spheres last for as long as 20 minutes, but other times that are gone in a few seconds. Now here is a scary fact, ball lightning can pass through a window and also a screen and it will usually leave burn marks on the screen. There have even been reports that it had got into a plane and went down the center isle. How would you have liked to have been a passenger on that plane and witnessed this event? I am almost sure that most people would have believed that this was some sort of paranormal event rather than a natural effect. The thing with ball lightning is that not every scientist believes that it even exists. There are many reports of it, but not everyone believes them.

Getting back to Sprites, they can be one or many elongated spots. They can also be spots that have parts that stick out above and below their elongated spot shape. A Sprite is usually red and sometimes it has blue tentacle like structures that extend down from it. It is unusual to see only one Sprite, although it happens. Scientists now feel that the most likely place for Sprites to appear is in decaying portions of thunderstorms. Sprites can just about been seen with the unaided eye, but assume dizzying shapes and shades with viewed by enhanced television images

Another phenomena is the blue jet. They appear at high altitudes and are usually seen above thunderstorms with low light systems. It is currently thought that these jets are ejections that occur at the top of thunderstorms. They travel at about 67 miles per second. They are continuously fanning out until they dissipate somewhere around 17 miles above their base position.

There is also something called Elves. Elves are diffuse regions of light that occur high above discharges. It is believed that an EMP is sent into the atmosphere. You know what an EMP is, that is Electro Magnetic Pulse. This can disrupt electrical devices and is the basis for a types of weapons. Elves got it's name from Emission of Light and VLF perturbations due to EMP Sources

Nature has many secrets, and even though we think we know most of them, I am sure she has many more surprises in store for us.