Red sprite lightning. First true-colour image of red sprite lightning above a thunderstorm. Red sprites typically extend from the cloud tops,which here are at an altitude of 16.5 kilometres (km),up to the ionosphere at 95 km. They last for a few milliseconds and are barely visible to the naked eye. Red sprites are associated with the most energetic positive-charge cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. These may leave uncompensated negative charge in and above the cloud. This may lead to quasi-electrostatic fields which cause ionization and light. Photographed at an altitude of 12.9 kilometres on 3 July 1994 over the USA | |
Lizenzart: | Lizenzpflichtig |
Credit: | Science Photo Library / DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY / DANIEL L. OSBORNE, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA |
Bildgröße: | 3543 px × 2727 px |
Modell-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Eigentums-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Restrictions: | - |