Red Sprites
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I recorded a long lasting red sprite display with my image intensified camera (night vision device) on the night Sep/6-7/2005. Sprites are electrical discharges that occur high above the cumulonimbus cloud of an active thunderstorm. They appear as luminous reddish-orange, neon-like flashes, last typically around 17 milliseconds, and are usually spawned by discharges of positive lightning between the cloud and the ground. Sprites usually occur in clusters of two or more simultaneous vertical discharges, typically extending from 65 to 75 km (40 to 47 miles) above the earth.Also in the video in one blue jet. To my knowledege this is the first time a blue jet was captured on video in Europe.
Canal: Howto & Style
Añadido: October 7, 2006 at 8:55 am
Autor: 06solareclipse
Duración: 04:02
Puntuación: 4.59
Reproducciones: 75566
Etiquetas: blue jet red sprite
Comentarios
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Eastview605 (July 31, 2008 at 10:30 am)
About the IR - the term "heating" used by the radio guys refers to electron heating, not thermal heating of the neutrals. Not the same. FLIR detects thermal emissions in the medium infrared spectrum (several microns), due to hot neutrals. There should be some near infrared emissions (1-2 microns) from N2 due to electron impact of excited electronic states of neutral N2, but this would be at shorter wavelengths than typical FLIR cameras can detect. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to look.
Eastview605 (July 31, 2008 at 10:16 am)
No, the first observation of a sprite was in 1989 and was accidental. It was made by Dick Franz, one of Jack Winckler's grad students at the Univ. of Minnesota when they were testing cameras for auroral observations. Had nothing whatsoever to do with radio. These types of events were named "sprites" in 1993, and it was only then that the radio guys went back and found some previously unaccounted for signatures that were associated with sprites. The discovery and initial work was purely video.
sugarpuddin88 (July 31, 2008 at 5:54 am)
I understand that they were first detected by VLF remote sensing; which inspired optical range studies; and that photometric, video and radio measurements (30 Hz to 20kHz) were used to detect the first sprite observations IR lies between the two sets of Fz, so I would think FLIR would detect itMoreover, the phenomenon has been said to be related to heating (and ionization). Thus, should it not be detected in the IR Fz range?
wxchaser03 (July 26, 2008 at 2:22 am)
perfectly understandably. It always astonisheses me how walt is known. But he is very good. Ill pass the word on, we have a meeting in the next week with CSU to go over the next step in LMA analysis. Glad to see more 'professionals' on youtube. cant find videos anywhere else and what a great medium to educate on sprites.
Eastview605 (July 24, 2008 at 4:21 am)
I'm reluctant to explicitly identify myself on a YouTube forum, but tell Walt I've been advertising his dvd in Spain (I'm writing from Granada) and to be expecting a call about this in the next week or so. ;-)
wxchaser03 (July 24, 2008 at 12:10 am)
quite aware of the fairbanks jets, man are they impressive. What is your relationship to the sprite world? I love how there are so many interested people in them and the majority of the last couple comments are from people who have worked researching them. I wish my boss would let us put some videos up but he produces dvd's so no go. :(
Eastview605 (July 23, 2008 at 10:19 pm)
wxchaser03, there were two kinds of cameras that captured the first blue jets in 1994. The clearest images came from a standard monochrome white light ICCD - no blue filter. The second camera was an intensified color camera by Ikegami. The jets showed up primarily in the blue channel,hence the designation blue jets.
Eastview605 (July 23, 2008 at 10:11 pm)
Sugar, you said "I wonder how it would look using FLIR?" Good question. No one has looked in the infrared, but my guess is you wouldn't see anything with a regular FLIR camera. Sprites are molecular nitrogen fluorescent emissions from cold plasma discharges, and are believed not to be accompanied by any real heating of the neutrals, hence would not be expected to produce any (or at least very little) blackbody thermal emissions. Still, it would be interesting to look.
venomcha0s (June 15, 2008 at 12:38 am)
Not blue jets. All of them look to be sprites of different varieties and types.
KellyKelly008 (May 26, 2008 at 9:31 am)
I'm No Researcher On Sprites But So Far I'm Upto 1:39 And I've Seen 13 Blue Jets...
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