From solar eclipsesnorthern lights and even multiple meteor showers2024 has been marked by astronomical shows that have captivated the population. On this occasion, the sky of Puerto Rico was adorned, in the early hours of Sunday, with intense electrical discharges whose trajectory was directed towards the atmosphere, a curious sighting that was captured by the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC).
According to the SAC, this event is known as “gigantic jets,” discharges that are up to 10 times the intensity of lightning and reach the lower part of the ionosphere, the area where charged particles feel the Earth’s magnetic field.
Their discharge is so intense that it can even affect satellites in lower orbits.
According to the agency, the “giant jets” resemble “red sprites”, another type of less intense discharges that occur in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere.
Unlike lightning, which travels from clouds to the Earth’s surface, both gigantic jets and red sprites travel rapidly in the opposite direction toward the atmosphere.
“While we were reviewing images of some meteors that were seen from the island, we noticed the curious discharges“, the entity indicated in written statements.
The phenomenon was actually caused by intense thunderstorms located south of the island.
The SAC explained that the red color of both types of discharges is due to the interaction of nitrogen with the mesosphere, the highest layer of the atmosphere.
“Because (the discharges) extend to great heights, from an observer’s perspective, they could appear against a clear, starry sky. Although they actually occur “above” very intense thunderstorms, thunderclouds cumulonimbus The causes of these events could be very distant or close to the horizon, or even hidden by the curvature of the Earth.”the educational organization reported.
The “giant jets” can be detected with the naked eye and look like rapid flashes of light, since they are recorded in just fractions of a second. However, the SAC pointed out that, on this occasion, there was a peculiarity regarding their duration.
“The images we obtained suggest that these discharges that were seen from the island They must have lasted slightly longer than usual. So much so that some people might have seen them.”he added.
The educational institution explained that some of the images were obtained by monochrome (black and white) cameras, while others in color show what appears to be a brief red “flash” rising into the atmosphere.
In the case of red spectra, a similar event but of less intensity, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, in English) has classified it as “one of the least known electrical phenomena in the Earth’s upper atmosphere”, so any sighting can contribute to scientific research.
According to NASA, these spectra have been documented and observed with the naked eye for centuries. But it was not until 1989 that cameras were able to capture these events for the first time.
That year, researchers at the University of Minnesota were testing a low-light television camera for a rocket flight mission. However, their camera happened to capture, by chance, the first credible evidence of “red sprites.”