Lightning can create strange light as well as lightning, the unspoken nature of which led meteorologists to name them as Sprites and Elves. Satellites at wavelengths and even high-powered events have rarely been shown to be visible to the human eye, but there has been controversy over whether the two are connected.
For the first time, these energy bursts have been studied with a wide range of detectors of the electromagnetic spectrum to answer that question. Astronomers have spent a great deal of time trying to uncover the source of the gamma-ray bursts across half of the universe, but we are still a little closer to home.
The exceptionally strong (which is short-wavelength) photons, known as Territorial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGF), last less than a few milliseconds and were detected by satellite over lightning. Atmospheric scientists have for some time agreed that the acceleration of electrons in lightning fields results in TGF results; Fields such as strong fields travel enough at light speeds to hold the strange consequences of special relativity. Whether electrons are emitted by heat at the tip of an electronic ball or produced by cosmic rays that reduce the impact on the atmosphere remains controversial.
TGFs are hard to predict, and so studied, but on October 10, 2018, they were spotted over East Sulawesi, Indonesia, and scientists were ready. The International Space Station carries bottom-trained X-ray and gamma-ray detectors with three ultraviolet and optical photometers directly overhead. No TGF has yet been observed across such a spectrum. All of this equipment contained the ultraviolet radiation of the fast-building and the red stretch ring known as an Elve, Along with the TGF.
A research observation of science has been attributed to the light of blood emitted from nuclear oxygen caused by currents in a photovoltaic channel, where ionized gas precedes actual lightning. The lightning strike itself created light at a very short wavelength for human vision but is easily visible to many animals. Although elves are fairly common, some short-term studies are only seen from space or higher in the atmosphere.
The paper blames the set of two observations on the leader for jumping into the clouds instead of jumping into the clouds. The paper argues that only a fast and rapidly changing, but very powerful, electric source current can create a certain form of radiation here. Although this work establishes that some TGFs and Elves are connected through a common origin, many more observations will be required to show if this is always the case, or if the phenomena sometimes occur independently.
