Sprite Lightning at 100,000 Frames Per Second

Explanation: What causes sprite lightning ? Mysterious bursts of light in the sky that momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish have been recorded for over 30 years, but apart from a general association with positive cloud-to-ground lightning, their root cause remains unknown. Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't. Recently, however, high speed video s are better detailing how sprites actually develop. The featured video , captured in mid-2019, is fast enough -- at about 100,000 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 videos like these do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery . High speed vidoes do indicate to some researchers , though, that sprites are more likely to occur when plasma irregularities exist in the upper atmosphere .

Astrophysicists: Browse 2,300+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library