Sprite Lightning in Slow Motion
What causes sprite lightning?
Mysterious bursts of light in the sky that momentarily
resemble
gigantic jellyfish have been recorded for over 25 years, but their root cause remains unknown.
Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't.
Recently, however,
high speed videos are better detailing how
sprites actually develop.
The featured video is fast enough -- at about 10,000 frames per second -- to
time-resolve
several sprite "bombs" dropping and developing into the
multi-pronged streamers that
appear on
still images.
Unfortunately, the
visual clues provided by
these videos
do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery.
They do indicate to some researchers,
though, that sprites are more likely to occur when
plasma irregularities
exist in the upper atmosphere.