Rare Form of ‘Red Lightning’ Caught on Camera Over Puerto Rico

Remote surveillance cameras recently captured a rare display of natural light in the skies over Puerto Rico. These disturbingly beautiful explosions are called supergiants, an uncommon form of lightning that originates in clouds and shoots upward, high into the atmosphere, rather than down toward the ground.

Cameras operated by the Caribbean Astronomy Society captured the images in the early hours of August 4. As society members reviewed the footage to examine the meteors, they instead saw bright explosions, which lasted for a few seconds. In a Facebook post, mailThe organization said it had received reports of people seeing the planes from several areas of the island.

“The images we have obtained indicate that these leaks seen from the island may have lasted longer than usual,” the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.

Giant aircraft are Recently This phenomenon was first discovered in 2002. Similar to red sprites, they are both electrical discharges that shoot out of the clouds, shooting up to 56 miles (90 kilometers) into the ionosphere. These jets are powerful, up to 10 times stronger than conventional lightning. Sometimes, their force can even affect satellites in low Earth orbit.

Since their discovery, researchers have is found These giant jets only occur when temperatures in the lower atmosphere are cooler than those in the middle atmosphere, causing clouds to form relatively close to the ground. While the exact mechanism that causes giant jets is still under investigation, they occur when there is a difference in charge between two layers of the atmosphere. As electricity passes through the middle atmosphere, it reacts with nitrogen, giving the jets their reddish color.

Although the giant jets only originate from the clouds that are part of severe thunderstorms, they shoot high into the sky and can be seen from a great distance. That’s why the video in Puerto Rico shows the jets in a clear night sky: The thunderstorm was actually miles away from the cameras.

Although rare, giant jets have occasionally been caught on camera. In 2021, a photographer in Puerto Rico was able to capture a detailed shot of a bright red jet. Colors.