The photo of a Red Spritite or “red spectrum”, a rare phenomenon of the high atmosphere (about 80 km of altitude) associated with lightning and strong thunderstorms, has become the “snap of life” of the American astronaut Nichole “Vapor” Ayers. This rare phenomenon was immortalized 400 km of height from International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday 3 July shortly before the ceased wave of bad weather that hit Texas: let’s talk about “snap of life” because the red sprites are very difficult to immortalize even from the ground (few thousandths of seconds last and are too weak to be observed to the naked eye), let alone from space! The name “Sprite” (from the English “spirit” or “elf”) describes the ephemeral nature he is bright colorsbut it is also the acronym for Stratospheric disturbations resulting from intense Thunderstorm Electrification – Stratospheric disturbances resulting from intense electrification of thunderstorms.
The Red Spritite belong to the category of Transient bright events that occur above the cloud, in the high atmosphere between about the 50 they 80 km from the earth. They are phenomena of which very little is still known (the first photograph dates back “only” to 1989 by a team from the University of Minnesota), but surely their origin is linked tointeraction between the electrical activity of thunderstorms and the ionization of the high atmosphere. Some mechanism at the moment not entirely understood leads the accumulation of electric charge in the temporal clouds to issue in the high atmosphere instead of the ground, as is the case for “traditional” lightning. In addition to the vivid coloring red-viola (due to nitrogen present in the upper atmosphere), they are characterized by the formation of branches that can extend both upwards and downwards reaching enormous dimensions with more than 40 km in diameter.
Being a phenomenon difficult to observe For the duration of a few milliseconds and for the fact that they take place above clouds, many questions about the nature of the sprites are currently unresolved: how do they form? Why? There Nasawith the aim of finding answers, since 2022, has started the project Spritacular To collect photos and data with the help of citizens who can send their shots by creating a real database on these events.
