Incredible photos of a rare phenomenon known as red lightning have been captured by a Czech photographer in Slovakia.
Astrophotographer Petr Horálek snapped the extraordinary jellyfish-shaped clusters of red light above a storm 380 kilometers away from where he was in the village of Záhradné.
Also known as ‘red sprite’, the stunning weather occurance, which lasts a few miliseconds, is caused by electrical bursts of light above highly active thunderstorms.
Posting the photos on social media, delighted Horálek said: “Severe stormy weather over central Europe brings one of the most spectacular but also mysterious phenomena: The Red Sprites.
“First observed in 1989, they became a target for many specialized photographers and videographers to improve their understanding of them.”
He added: “Photographing them is difficult because the photographer never knows in advance exactly where the phenomenon may appear.
“He has to estimate the direction of a distant storm (because at such a distance, the storm is often already far over the horizon) and try using the trial by error method. “It's a bit like a game of blindman’s bluff.”
Due to their high altitudes and short duration, the elusive red sprites are rarely observed from land or space.
When they are, they are in the D region of the ionosphere—the area just above the dense lower atmosphere, about 59 to 90 kilometers above the Earth.
They were accidentally discovered by late experimental physicist John Winckler in 1989 while he was helping to test a new low-light video camera.
Also known as ‘red sprite’, the stunning weather occurance, which lasts a few miliseconds, is caused by electrical bursts of light above highly active thunderstorms.
Posting the photos on social media, delighted Horálek said: “Severe stormy weather over central Europe brings one of the most spectacular but also mysterious phenomena: The Red Sprites.
“First observed in 1989, they became a target for many specialized photographers and videographers to improve their understanding of them.”
He added: “Photographing them is difficult because the photographer never knows in advance exactly where the phenomenon may appear.
“He has to estimate the direction of a distant storm (because at such a distance, the storm is often already far over the horizon) and try using the trial by error method. “It's a bit like a game of blindman’s bluff.”
Due to their high altitudes and short duration, the elusive red sprites are rarely observed from land or space.
When they are, they are in the D region of the ionosphere—the area just above the dense lower atmosphere, about 59 to 90 kilometers above the Earth.
They were accidentally discovered by late experimental physicist John Winckler in 1989 while he was helping to test a new low-light video camera.
Source: cas.sk/space.com
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